Tamer of Hope
by Miss Anonymous hp
Summary: This whole situation is really starting to get to TK. He's hardly slept or eaten; he's nearly died more times than he can count. He's only survived this long thanks to Patamon - the only thing he can remember about his life. And now he's run into a group called the tamers who have the answers he seeks, but they aren't talking... even when the fate of the world is at stake.
1. Chapter One

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. What do you think I woulda said instead?

 **Summary** : Sequel to _The Lost Tamer_. This whole situation was really starting to get to TK. He'd hardly slept, barely eaten, and every digimon he came across seemed to want him dead. He'd only survived this long thanks to Patamon whose name was about the only thing he could remember about his life before all this. Now he's run into a group of kids called the tamers who may have the answers he seeks, but they aren't talking. He'll have to trust them, though, if they have any hope of saving the world before it's too late.

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "scab".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

THIS STORY IS A SEQUEL. If you have not read _The Lost Tamer_ , I highly recommend you go back and read that first. This story is definitely written with the assumption that you've read that. That being said... TK has entered the building! Ah, I have been waiting for this for a while. I am pretty nervous about this story. Everybody who has been reading TLT knows that every time I write a Tamers character, I always get a little nervous... and now I'm going to be writing a bunch of them. At least I'm just slowly easing my way into it. Ah well. We made it, folks!

Enjoy

* * *

 **Chapter One**

This whole situation was really starting to get to TK.

The digimon on his tail should have been destroyed three days ago when Pegasusmon _Equis Beamed_ them right off of a cliff back in Virus Valley. They should have been destroyed two days ago when he and Patamon dropped a large bolder on top of their heads outside of a Tyrannomon cave. They _definitely_ should have been destroyed this morning when Angemon speared them with his Holy Rod by the Server Swamps.

No matter how many times he and Patamon destroyed them and watched them explode into tiny bits of data, they just kept reforming like one hellish nightmare after another. They couldn't even seem to outrun them.

He reached the top of the hill and tried to catch his breath. Patamon gave an exhausted sigh from his perch on top of his head. How long had it been since they had last encountered their pursuers? Maybe two hours. They never seemed to stay gone longer than that.

The past few days, they'd hardly slept. He'd given every little scrap of food that they could find to Patamon to try to keep his energy up, but they hadn't exactly come across any 5-course meals lately – only seeds and berries off of trees and even some particularly green grass that TK _tried_ not to judge Patamon for, but he knew it had to be a new personal low. TK's clothes were torn, burned, and stained with sweat and mud.

He'd only survived this long because of Patamon, and Patamon had only survived this long thanks to pure dumb luck. The digimon – Vilemon, they called themselves – didn't seem all too bright, but that didn't make them any less dangerous. TK had scratches and cuts all over his arms and back that were now very attractive scabs from being unexpectedly jumped by the creatures. He even sported a nasty bite on his shoulder that he was pretty sure was going to scar. Patamon could only protect him from so much. Neither of them could keep going for much longer. Patamon was already fighting to stay awake, and TK – well, he wasn't very far behind him. Soon he'd collapse from exhaustion, and then all of the running and hiding would be for nothing when the Vilemon would be suddenly faced with an unmoving target.

But where to run?

He scanned his surroundings. Under different circumstances, he might've enjoyed the view. To his left, desert crevices and hills rolled along the horizon, dotted with hutted villages and scattering of dead trees. To his right, the flatlands of the open desert marched west – or what he thought was west anyway. Sand dunes and a beautiful array of oranges and reds beat off of the glassy landscape. A herd of Mammothmon grazed along the shrubbery down below – several dozen digimon who probably did not want their morning breakfast interrupted by two Vilemon, a Patamon, and a filthy human.

A vague sadness weighed on TK's chest. This area reminded him of something, something he couldn't quite grasp in his fragmented memory. But he knew it had to do with Kari – the only person he could remember from his past. His memory of her was frustratingly dim. He'd had a dream the first day he'd woken up here promising that he would see her again and regain his memory – _if_ he succeeded in his journey.

Should he try to cross the desert?

It was oddly tempting. It was the desert that was causing the tugs of familiarity after all. Something to do with the desert and Kari… He could almost delude himself into thinking that going out into the desert would bring answers instead of death. But the logical part of him pointed out that he'd had trouble finding water while walking through the Digital World's version of a rain forest; walking into a desert would probably be suicide. But maybe it'd be suicide for the Vilemon too. Maybe they would die of dehydration before he did. Unlikely, but it was a decidedly dark yet nice thought.

He hesitated for another reason beyond logic. The only thing he'd had to guide him this entire time had been his instincts, and while he wouldn't exactly say they had been on point (he really could have used a little bit more luck in the food department), they had at least gotten him this far. His instincts had been continually guiding him south, and right now, something was sending them off like a homing radar as they tingled like crazy. He was close to something. He was close to something _important_. But how could that be? There was nothing on or around this hilltop.

Patamon suddenly perked up on top of his head. "They're coming back."

TK resisted the urge to groan as he whipped around to stare back the way they had just come. He couldn't pick out the Vilemon exactly, but he trusted Patamon's nose. A hundred yards down the slope, something disturbed the tumbleweed and shifted the sand. An excited screech ran up the hill.

Great.

For the millionth time, TK wished that they would just leave him alone. They had told him that they could find him because he lit up like a Christmas tree – whatever that meant. Something about being a tamer with a strong heart, which sounded like a load of rubbish to him. Even so, TK and Patamon had tried "dimming" their lights to the best of their ability. They'd rolled through mud, splashed through creeks, and even tried to think dark thoughts, but apparently, a tamer's light was hard to put out.

TK scrambled up the west side of the summit. It was too steep to descend. The slope plummeted eighty feet, straight to the desert floor where a gathering of mostly dead bushes and sharp rocks waited for him at the base.

"Great," TK said. "Dead-end. I walked us into a dead-end."

"Well, think of it this way," Patamon said, "at least if we jump, it'll probably hurt a lot less than letting the Vilemon tear us to shreds slowly."

TK looked up at his partner with a slightly disturbed expression. "I think you went a bit too serious with the dark thoughts, Patamon. That's a bit morbid."

"This isn't dark thoughts talking. This is hunger. I'm so hungry," Patamon said.

TK sighed. "I know."

He stared off across the desolate landscape, looking for inspiration _anywhere_. Every so often, a data stream of pink energy would shoot down from the world floating in the sky above. The stream would pick up everything in its path before disappearing. He and Patamon had learned early on to avoid those streams at all cost in fear of ending up halfway across the world, but right now, he'd give anything to have one open up right on top of him.

He slung off his backpack. He'd woken up with it on his back about two months ago, and including the supplies that had already been in it (which wasn't much), he'd been foraging for provisions every time they stopped. He dumped everything out onto the dusty ground: a green basketball jersey with the number 12 on the back, a few paperback novels, a water bottle, a white rag, his D-Terminal, several pens, and a Ziploc baggie filled with some sort of berries he'd found a couple miles back – all sentimental objects that he figured must be from his past, but nothing that could serve as a parachute or sled.

"Please tell me you have enough energy for one more digivolution," TK said.

"Only if you have a miracle in that backpack," Patamon said.

Great. That left him with two options: jump eighty feet to his and Patamon's death, or stand and fight. Both options sounded pretty bad.

He cursed under his breath and scooped everything back into his backpack before pulling his green digivice off of his belt.

The little device didn't look like much, just a miniature little handheld computer game, but it was key to TK's survival so far. Somehow, the little device connected him and Patamon in ways that he didn't fully understand or remember. Every time he held it, he felt stronger and braver somehow, and he liked to think that his strength was Patamon's strength in that moment. As long as he had his digivice, there was always hope.

He'd woken up with this device in his hand his first night in this Digital World – two months ago? More? He'd lost track. He'd found himself in the middle of a wooded clearing wearing the same brown cargo shorts and green t-shirt that he was wearing now. His green backpack had been next to him with Patamon sleeping on top. He'd reached for a hat that hadn't been on his head, leaving him with the vaguest feeling that he'd lost something. And then he'd realized he had. He had no idea how he'd gotten there, who he was, and only an elusive memory of who Patamon was. Those first few days had been the worst as the fear and terror of being all alone in this strange world had threatened to drive him insane. If Patamon hadn't been there to keep him calm, he wasn't sure what he would have done. But eventually the talking monsters and strange physics of the world became second nature. And then the digimon attacks started…

Right next to him, a familiar voice jolted him back to the present: "Found you!"

TK yelped and threw himself away from the Vilemon, almost falling off of the edge of the hill.

It was Vilemon Number One – the cheery one.

Okay, considering he was constantly trying to kill TK and destroy Patamon, cheery was probably not the best word to describe him, but it was the only one that TK could come up with. Compared to his partner, this Vilemon was practically friendly. Even now, he was grinning at him.

Well, Vilemon always grinned. They were little devils covered in gray fur that stood only up to TK's waist, but what they lacked in size, they made up for in power. Both of them sported red tufts of hair that traveled down their backs, heads that were way too big for their body, four gray wings, and naked yellow hands. Their white fangs glimmered in the daylight, shining out of their perpetually open mouths.

The most horrible thing about them? The smell. TK knew that he personally probably didn't smell very good; he hadn't seen a shower since digi-knows-when. But the Vilemon's stench was so pungent that it sent TK's stomach rolling anytime they got too close. It was like a combination between sewage and the back of a dump truck. It was awful. Vile, even – a pun that TK couldn't help but think every time he encountered these digimon, and one he was really starting to hate. TK wasn't sure what it was about them that made them smell so bad, but he figured if he ever needed to clear a room fast, he would just chuck a Vilemon in there. It would work wonders.

"Urgh, I think I'm going to be sick," Patamon said.

TK waved his hand in front of his face, trying to wave away the stench. "Where's your buddy?"

"Around," Cheery Vilemon said. "Why do you have your digivice out? You know you can't destroy us. We don't even have to fight. We could be friends. I'd hate for us to be enemies when we destroy you."

"Vilemon!" The second Vilemon (the one that TK thought of as the angry one) appeared on TK's right so fast, he didn't have time to react. Fortunately, he was too busy glaring at his partner in crime to pay him much attention. "I told you to sneak up on them and destroy them both!"

Cheery Vilemon's grin wavered. "But, Vilemon… We can't kill them before we're friends!"

"Of course we can, you dimwit!" Angry Vilemon turned toward TK and bared his fangs.

This Vilemon looked exactly like his partner, except that his grin somehow managed to look more menacing.

"You've led us on quite a chase, TK Takaishi, with that pathetic partner of yours, Patamon," Angry Vilemon said.

"Hey!" Patamon protested.

Angry Vilemon ignored him. "But now you're trapped, and we'll have our revenge!"

"But first, do you like hopscotch? It's a fun game to play with friends," Cheery Vilemon added. "I'm really good at it. Vilemon over there gets way too frustrated, though, and I've been looking for a new buddy to play with."

Angry Vilemon snarled. "Vilemon! Get your head on straight! They are the enemy, not our _friends_. Or have you forgotten that they're the ones that sucked up all of our brethren in that Destiny Gate of theirs?"

TK stepped back. Loose scree tumbled down the hillside, and TK knew if he took a wrong step, he'd be following the pebbles very shortly in a freefall tumble through the air. "Look, guys, we've been over this. We don't _remember_ this Piedmon dude you used to work for."

"And I definitely don't remember sucking up your friends in a Destiny Gate or whatever," Patamon added.

"Right!" TK said. "So, can't we just call it a truce, and be friends instead?"

Cheery Vilemon gave his partner a pouty look, which was hard to do with the plastered on grin still on his face. "Can we?"

"No!" Angry Vilemon's red eyes bored into TK. "I don't care what either of you remember, tamer! We remember it as if it were yesterday!"

"Well, mostly," Cheery Vilemon said. "It's kind of fuzzy. Are you sure he's a tamer, Vilemon? I could have sworn he was called something else…"

"Hush, you! You're an idiot. Of course he's a tamer. What else would he be? But back to what I was saying – _you_ are the ones that destroyed our legion of Vilemon. Most of us still haven't found our way back out of the World of Darkness yet. It's all your fault!"

TK didn't really get that. There was a lot he didn't get, but this whole business about the World of Darkness was a whole other thing. He got the distinct impression that every time Patamon destroyed these guys that this other world was where they were supposed to go, but something was going wrong in the process. All he knew was that the whole thing was giving him a headache. Talking monsters and digivices and being a chosen one or something or other – it was enough to make him think he was crazy if it weren't for the fact that he all knew it was all completely true. Even though his memory was erased, he knew that Patamon was his digimon partner the same way he knew his name was Takeru Takaishi. After the first week that he'd spent hiding under some large digital tree, praying to wake up from his nightmare, he'd eventually come to accept that this crazy messed-up world of digital monsters was his reality. Which, so far, had pretty much sucked – excluding Patamon, of course.

"Is it too late to say we're sorry?" Patamon said.

"Look, how about we call it a draw?" TK said. "We've only destroyed you both about two dozen time, and… you've yet to kill us. That seems pretty even, right?"

"You've gotten lucky, that's all!" Angry Vilemon screeched.

"Actually, if you add in all of the Vilemon that he defeated when we worked for Piedmon, I think it'd be closer to fifty," Cheery Vilemon pointed out.

"You're not helping!" Angry Vilemon growled. "We'll get him this time. We have a new patron on our side – one that can't lose! And as long as Patamon doesn't reach ultimate, we still have a chance! The Child of Hope will die today!"

"The child of what?"

"Hope!" Cheery Vilemon said. "That's you, by the way. It's because of your crest – but you're not wearing it. How odd. Did you lose it?"

TK instinctively looked down toward his chest, as if he were looking for a pendant around his neck. But nothing was there. He tried to think. He didn't remember anything about a crest or being a Child of Hope. Then again, he didn't remember much of anything. He sure didn't feel very hopeful now.

He glanced over his shoulder and down the cliff. The plunge was starting to look more and more inviting, especially when compared to those claws. He didn't really want to die like this, but he was really starting to run out of options. TK gripped his digivice. His mind whirled with panic. He needed a plan, but he was drawing a very painful blank.

 _Keep them talking,_ he thought. _Buy some time._

"Before you slash us to bits," he said, "mind telling us who your patron is? I'd love to meet him one day."

"You would?" Patamon deadpanned.

TK sent a glare upward toward him.

"Oh! I mean – absolutely."

Angry Vilemon sneered. "Our Lord Huanglongmon, of course! The one who found us and brought us back from oblivion! You won't live long enough to meet him, but the other tamers will soon face his wrath. Even now, his armies are marching toward the portal. On the day of the summer solstice, he'll awaken, and the armies will march into the Human World and cut down every living thing—"

"I can't wait to see the Human World!" Cheery Vilemon said. "I bet it's really nice."

"Why do I put up with you!?" Angry Vilemon charged toward his partner. He slashed his claws up and down Cheery Vilemon, cutting him into ribbons.

TK knew that it was now or never. "Patamon…" he muttered. "I'm going to need you to dig deep."

"TK, what are you thinking?" Patamon asked nervously.

"I'm going to need you to dig really deep."

Cheery Vilemon had exploded into data, but he was already starting to reform, like a sand castle reforming on its own. "Why'd you have to do that, Vilemon?" he gurgled out the whine as his half-made face began to reconfigure two feet off the ground. "I thought we were friends…"

Angry Vilemon turned his glare onto TK and Patamon. "Your turn."

TK turned and leapt off of the cliff, Patamon screaming overhead, and cried out with every ounce of desperation that he had, " _Digi-Armor Energize!_ "


	2. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. Believe it or not!

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "air".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

I'm just having so much fun with this, but I am also taking my time. I sped through the ending of TLT - not sped through as in I left a lot of stuff out, but as in I just sped wrote the last of it to get it done. But with this one, I don't have a self-imposed deadline looming over me, so I am back to just writing as writing happens. I know it can be a pain to get semi-slow updates, but hopefully it's not too awful. If you've been following my update schedule for a while, you know that sometimes I just start speed updating and sometimes I just need a break. That's just how I am. Right now, I am in neither. I just taking my sweet time. I hope you...

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

The thing about falling to your death at sixty miles an hour and climbing without any hope of a recovery – you don't often realize it's a bad idea until it's way too late.

"I can't!" Patamon cried.

"Patamon, you have to!" TK yelled.

"I can't!" Patamon said. "I don't have the energy!"

Patamon's wings flapped as quickly as he could as he clutched the back of TK's t-shirt, desperately trying to carry him, but there was no way. TK's weight was dropping them through the air, rapidly speeding toward the ground. In about ten seconds, they were both going to end up liquefied pancakes. This was not exactly how TK had hoped things were going to end.

"Patamon, you can do it! Just focus! Or we're dead!" TK screamed.

"I can't—!"

"PATAMON! _Digi-Armor Engerize!_ "

For a second, all that TK heard was the sound of wind whipping through his ears. He thought this was it. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to feel too much regret at dying without any memory. And then over the sound of the roaring in his ears –

"Patamon digivolve to… Pegasusmon!"

TK's momentum suddenly went from terminal to " _oh crap, this is going to hurt_ ". His body jerked with so much force that it gave him whiplash. It took him a second to get his bearings straight and realize that Pegasusmon had the back of his t-shirt in his mouth, and another moment after that to find the strength and stability scramble his way onto his back, arms secured around his neck with his heart in his throat. TK reached down and patted Pegasusmon's armored side affectionately.

"Good work, Pegasusmon," TK said. "You did it."

"N-Not for long, TK," Pegasusmon said. "I don't know how long I can hold this form. I don't… have the energy…"

"Just get us to the ground," TK said, trying to ignore the way fear clutched his gut at the sound of the struggle in Pegasusmon's voice. "I'll do the rest."

"I-I can't…"

"Yes, you can! The ground's right there, Pegasusmon. We're almost there!"

TK had no sooner finished speaking before Pegasusmon was enveloped in light, and he disappeared back into his much smaller form of Patamon. For a moment, TK was suspended in air, as if the physics of the Digital World couldn't decide if it wanted to take pity on him or just drop him ungracefully to the desert ground. The Digital World went with the latter option.

TK fell, screaming all the way. He heard the Vilemon duo yelling after him, and as he tumbled through the air, he caught a glimpse of one of them looking down at him from atop the cliff. Not that he had time to worry about it. The ground was rapidly approaching. Collision in five, four, three…

He managed to fall into a roll to avoid breaking his legs on impact. He skidded about twenty feet through dust and dirt. Patamon went one way. TK went the other.

As he rolled off another short ledge, a horrible scenario flashed through his mind: landing in the middle of the Mammothmon herd, ending up squashed under some oblivious digimon's hoof until later when they realized they'd stepped in something gross. The Mammothmon would scrape off his remains on a sharp rock. _Gross human flies falling from the sky. Never pick up after themselves!_

Miraculously, the Mammothmon herd had moved on since the last time TK had checked – just enough to land several feet outside of the herd and crash into a clump of bushes instead. It wasn't a soft landing, but it was better than sharp rocks or under a Mammothmon's hoof.

TK groaned. He wanted to lie there and pass out, but he had to keep moving.

He struggled to his feet. His hands were scratched up, his entire body hurt, and he had either sweat or blood trailing down his face – but miraculously, no bones seemed to be broken. He still had his backpack. Somewhere on the trip down he'd lost his digivice, but he was in too much pain to panic just yet. That would come later.

"P-Patamon?" he called out shakily.

Everything around him was dusty orange, so it took him a few sweeps around the area before he found his digimon partner caught in a thorn bush. TK winced at the sight and hobbled over to carefully pick him out. He wasn't conscious, but as TK picked a thorn off of his batwing ear, he groaned in pain, so TK took that as a good sign.

He glanced back up the hill. The Vilemon were hard to miss, with their dark-colored fur and bright red Mohawks. The cheery one had finally fully reformed, and they spread their wings before jumping off the edge to chase after them. They flew slowly, their eyes sweeping the desert trying to locate them. His tumble through the dirt had left a nice thick layer of red sand in his hair and all over his clothes; it was acting as a temporary camouflage, buying him a few minutes. But he knew it wouldn't work when they got closer. TK figured he had maybe five minutes at most before he was spotted and that was if he stayed in one place and didn't draw attention to himself.

Next to him, a paved path curved around the steep slope and apparently led into some sort of mud-hutted village. He figured that some sort of mostly friendly digimon lived there – the nicer digimon seemed to live in communities, while the meaner ones tended to be loners. TK could probably slip around the rock face, go hide out there until the Vilemon left. Maybe he could find food, water, enough to survive a walk in the desert. He didn't like stealing food, but over the past few weeks, food had literally become life-and-death, so he'd "borrowed" quite a bit when given the chance. He always intended to somehow repay the digimon he stole from, but he never seemed to make his way back to where they were.

He glanced the opposite direction. A data stream opened and shot through the sky, picking up everything in its path like a digital tornado. There was no telling where it led, but he knew if he ran right into it, surely it would take him _somewhere_ away from here. Nothing about this data stream seemed different than any of the others, but something about it was sending TK's internal instincts off like crazy.

But _why_?

After so many horrible days, he felt like he'd finally reached his goal. He'd walked, run, hid, lived – all this way just to be picked up by some random data stream and dropped somewhere else. How did that make any sense? And yet, his instincts told him that if he could make it to that data stream, he might find safety for the first time since waking up in this unforgiving world two months ago.

So why did everything feel so wrong?

The Vilemon were circling overhead, scanning every piece of land for their prey. Three minutes before spotted – maybe less.

Part of him wanted to throw caution to the wind and run for the data stream. He'd have to run through open desert to reach it, but with it coming toward him as he ran for it, the sprint wouldn't be too long. He could make it before the Vilemon reached them. Maybe.

But the other part of him wanted to head for the village. Get food, water, then head for the desert. The Vilemon would probably leave him to his death, but he was resilient. He'd probably be able to find shelter before dehydration claimed him. Then he'd have time to breathe, recuperate, come up with a solid non-hunger induced plan.

Plus that data stream made him uneasy. Something inside him said: _That doesn't lead to home. Don't let it trick you_.

"You're right, of course," said a voice next to him.

TK jumped. At first he thought Cheery Vilemon had managed to sneak up on him again, but the man sitting in the bushes was even more of a shocking sight than the demon digimon. For one, he was completely see-through. For another, he looked completely _human_ – ignoring the see-through part anyway. He looked like he might be about forty, maybe early fifties, with a receding hairline and copper hair. He had a nice full beard and a kind but patronizing smile. He wore a yellow hoody with blue jeans.

"Oh, here, you might need this," the man continued as he held out TK's digivice.

Where he'd found it or how he was holding it when he looked transparent and ghost-like, TK had no idea. He hesitantly took his digivice and muttered out a very confused, "Thanks."

"That data stream won't take you to another part of the Digital World," the man said.

"It won't?" TK asked despite himself.

"Nope," he confided. "That data stream is special. It's manmade. I made it actually. It will take you to the Real World. If you want."

A jolt went up TK's spine. _The Real World_. Yes, that's where he was from. The Real World. With humans. Mothers, fathers, siblings. Somewhere. Maybe his home was on the other side. Maybe Kari was close by.

But something still felt wrong.

The Vilemon were still circling the skies. Then Cheery Vilemon shrieked in delight and pointed at a random thorn bush on the other side of the canyon. TK still had time, but once they realized he was _not_ the bush, it wouldn't be long.

The old hippie man raised an eyebrow. "It looks like you don't have much time. You need to make a choice."

"Who are you?" TK asked, though he wasn't fully sure that he wanted to know. The last thing he needed was to find out even harmless looking humans turned out to be murderous digimon.

"You can call me Shibumi." The older man's eyes sparkled as if he were telling an excellent joke that TK was just not getting. "But don't confuse it for Shinobi. I may be amazing, but I am not a ninja."

"Right…" Patamon groaned in his arms, and TK shook his head. "Look, I should go. Those Vilemon are after us, and… I don't know if they _can_ hurt you, but just in case, I wouldn't want you to get caught in the crossfire."

If possible, Shibumi's eyebrow rose even higher. "How noble." He spoked as if he were in no rush despite TK's bouncing where he sat crouched with nerves. "I can tell you this – if you go for the desert, there is an oasis about a day's walk in. You'll reach it, and the Vilemon will assume you dead. You might even be able to live there just fine for a while. Maybe even for the rest of your life. No pain, no misery, just you and your digimon."

TK held Patamon a little bit closer to his chest. "Why do I feel like I'm not going to like the second option as much?"

"Or you could give all your hope into the idea that our meeting was destiny and take the unknown path," he said.

The Vilemon had finally realized that he was _not_ a thorn bush and only a second later spotted him – they were gliding toward him now, leisurely, knowing that he had nowhere really to run.

TK glanced nervously toward Shibumi. "Destiny? Really?"

"Absolutely," he said. "Believe it or not, but all of this – everything leading up to this moment – has been your destiny. A destiny you can deny, of course. But if you do, the world as we know it will be destroyed, and everyone from your old life will cease to exist. Of course, you don't remember any of them, so maybe that wouldn't matter so much. The desert offers you personal safety."

TK swallowed. The Vilemon shrieked with laughter as they soared in for the kill.

"TK," Patamon suddenly spoke up, sounding weak but at least awake, "whatever you decide, I'm with you."

That just made everything harder.

"If I go to the Real World," TK said, "will we get our memories back?"

"Eventually," Shibumi said. "But I should warn you, I can't see the future – can't even pretend to try – but I suspect that if you choose that path, it won't be easy. You'll lose your armor, for one. There is a lot of fighting ahead, and I know it won't be easy. But if you do come join us, you might get the chance to save your old friends and family, and reclaim your old life."

The Vilemon were circling right over his head. They were probably studying the strange ghostly man, trying to figure out if he were a threat or not before they attacked.

TK hated this whole situation. At worst, this was a trap. At best, it was some kind of test. Or, maybe, the guy was just telling the truth: it was just destiny playing its hand, which sucked just as much. TK was starting to hate the idea of destiny. If this was his destiny, it was a really crappy one. Since he'd lost his memory, his whole life was one big fill-in-the-blank. How was anybody supposed to fulfill any sort of great destiny with this little information on the world?

Then he thought of Kari, the only part of his old life he was sure about. He _had_ to find her, especially if she was in danger.

"Okay." TK glanced up toward the Vilemon and back toward Shibumi. He'd already made his decision, but something made him hesitate. He wanted to leave this world so badly it hurt, but that data stream seemed… different.

"It's connected directly to the Digital World's core," Shibumi said as if reading his mind. "It connects directly to _him_. He'll do whatever he can to weaken you. The only thing he'll be able to do at this state is take away your Digiegg of Hope, but I know how it's gotten you this far. This is your last chance to back out."

"Take it away?" Patamon asked. "I won't become Pegasusmon anymore?"

"The Digieggs are a Holy Beasts blessing, and he is their master. It was only going to be a matter of time before he took it from you. This is just going to give him direct access."

TK was too exhausted to understand all of that, but he got the main point. "So if we go to the Real World using that data stream, it's gone."

"I'm sorry," Shibumi said. "I couldn't figure out a way to mask your presence when you were in route. But you must make a choice."

TK tried to push aside his fear. "Are you going to be okay if we just leave you here?"

"I'll be fine," Shibumi said. "After all, I'm not really here to begin with."

Then, before TK's very eyes, Shibumi dissipated into nothing. TK blinked rapidly to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

Patamon muttered out, "Whoa."

Angry Vilemon shot down toward him, and TK broke out of his shock just in time to dive out of the way. He rolled through the dust and landed on his feet. _Kari_ , TK thought. He bolted toward the data stream. "Hold on, Patamon!" he called.

Somewhere off to his left, Angry Vilemon cried, "You can't get away from us that easy! Sooner or later, we'll catch you—!"

TK stepped into the data stream and was ripped off of the ground. It was like being sucked up a vacuum tube at supersonic speed. It was much swifter than he'd imagined. The only thing he could hear was the roar through his own ears and the sound of his and Patamon's screams. He held tight to Patamon, waiting for them to slam against the side of the "tube" they were flying through, but the data stream seemed to know what it was doing. It kept him perfectly centered as it carried him higher and higher. He wondered what was on the other side – had the old man lied? At this point, TK was just exhausted and scared enough to believe just about anything. He sure hope he hadn't just led them to their death.

He started to hear something else. Children laughing. Honking horns. Traffic. Crowd chatter. Life. TK's heart pounded. His chest ached.

The journey came to an abrupt end. He was thrown out onto pavement unexpectedly, losing a layer of skin in the process that he hoped he didn't need. TK fell onto his back and groaned.

"I really need to stop doing that," he complained.

"TK," Patamon said, "what is this?"

TK peeled his eyes open to look around him. He'd expected to see a city street, buildings, people. Instead, he found himself in the middle of an extremely thick fog. TK sat up and ran his hand through the air in front of him. His fingers moved through the vapor as if it weren't even there. It wasn't _wet_ like a cloud or steam; it was just thick, hard to see through.

"I have no idea," he said.

"I feel funny," Patamon said.

TK gave him a concerned look. The fog was so thick that he could barely make him out, but somehow Patamon looked more alert and stronger than he had in days. His eyes were wide and pupils dilated as if he'd been injected with caffeine.

"Funny, how?"

"Funny… good," Patamon said. "I feel like I've eaten a four-course meal. I—TK!"

TK whipped his head around to see two vague images in the fog. They were fading in and out of existence as if coming in on a bad connection, but every second made their image stronger.

"Vilemon," TK said.

He scrambled to his feet and blindly headed away from them. He took two steps and then fell flat on his face as he stepped off of a curb he hadn't seen. His wrists screamed in pain as he tried to break his fall. The sound of an approaching car sent TK's adrenaline into overdrive as he threw himself back onto the sidewalk just as a Honda went speeding down the street, rolling over the pavement TK had been laying on just seconds before. Patamon grabbed the back of his t-shirt and dragged him further away from the street.

"Which way's out, Patamon? I can't see!"

"I don't know, TK. Just stay here, I'll protect you."

TK would have been embarrassed if he could hear himself right now. His voice trembled with fear and exhaustion. Tears of frustration sprung to his eyes. This was just too much. A large part of him just wanted to give up at this point. He'd made it to the Real World, but he was completely blind to everything around him.

The Vilemon broke out of their stasis. They grinned through the fog at their prey. Angry Vilemon cackled. "We have you now, little hope! When we destroy you, we will be handsomely rewarded by our master! We will be favored! We will—!"

" _Terrier Tornado!_ "

A mini-tornado suddenly ripped through the fog and slammed right into both Vilemon. They yelped in pain and were sent flying in different directions. A small stuffed-looking rabbit appeared out of the chaos, looking completely unharmed.

"Villain speeches are so overrated," the rabbit said.

"Terriermon!" an exasperated voice said.

"What?" the rabbit said. "They are!"

"I didn't tell you to go in yet," the voice said.

"Henry," the rabbit whined, "if I waited for you to tell me to go in, I'd die of boredom before we'd ever get anything done!"

A girlish giggle sounded from within the fog. Her silhouette appeared next to Terriermon's partner – Henry. TK couldn't see either of them well at all, just their shapes in the fog. The girl had something in her hand.

"Vilemon," the girl said, sounding a bit more serious after her giggling. "Champion level. Virus type. They're a devil-like digimon who prey on the weak. Their special attack is Nightmare Shock."

"Sounds like they're real friendly," Terriermon said sarcastically.

None of them seemed to have noticed TK yet.

"Where's Rika?" a new male voice asked.

"Who cares?" said a third male voice. "Guardromon and I got this."

"Yeah, we got this!" a mechanical voice echoed.

"Why do you always have to repeat everything I say?" said the voice of the third boy.

"Why do you always have to repeat everything _I_ say?" Guardromon asked.

"She's on her way," the first male voice, Henry, said. "Terriermon, don't do anything reckless."

"Jeez, Henry. Take the fun out of everything, why don'tchya?" Terriermon said.

"Jeri," Henry continued, his voice echoing through the fog as he ignored Terriermon, "you and Kenta should stay back. Kazu and I will handle this."

The second boy groaned. "Why don't we get to ever fight?"

"Because we don't want you to piss your pants, Kenta," the third voice said.

"That was once!" the second boy said. "In first grade!"

A strange chirping noise suddenly sounded from within the fog. TK wondered if he should try to make another escape, but his fear kept him on his knees, not knowing which way to go.

"Guys," the second voice – Kenta, if TK was keeping track correctly – said. "MarineAngemon says there's someone else in here with us. Another kid."

"Patamon," TK muttered, "hide."

He wasn't sure why he said it. The order was second nature, like he was used to hiding his digimon partner around unknown humans. But Patamon remained frozen on top of his head.

"I think it's a little late for that," Patamon said.

Then out of the fog, a boy wearing an orange t-shirt with navy blue hair and a green digivice hanging from his belt stepped forward. His eyes went from concerned to shocked as he took in Patamon on top of his head. He didn't seem to know what to say for a second. From behind him, his companions starts to come into view. A girl with auburn hair pulled back into a braid. A boy with light brown hair sticking straight up with too much hair gel. And another boy with dark hair in a bowl cut and glasses. They all regarded him with curiosity and uncertainty.

Finally, the first boy spoke, "Who are you?"

Not knowing what else to do, TK decided to just answer honestly. "I'm TK… Takeru. Takeru Takaishi."


	3. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. My songs know what you didn't adore...

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "alternative".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

I had a _huge_ burst of inspiration of how things were going to play out during this installment. It unfortunately did alter some plans I had already started setting up in chapters one and two, but I am really excited by this new direction. I hope everybody enjoys it. I think it's going t really differentiate ToH from TLT, which I think is sorely needed. However, this new direction will do a number of things, the main thing being that we will be sticking with TK's POV for a little while longer than initially planned. I just think that we need TK's POV to explore the changes in the Tamer's world, changes that the Adventure world did not have, so wasn't necessary. I hope Tamer fans will be patient, because I definitely plan on the Tamer's having a _lot_ of POVs moving forward. We're just going to stick with TK longer in ToH than we did with Takato in TLT. Eep.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

"Wait," the boy with glasses said, "did he just say…?"

He sounded as if he recognized TK's name. TK focused on him, hoping to see a familiar face.

He might have been around TK's age, maybe a year or two younger. His dark hair appeared to be a shade of deep green the longer TK stared. He wore a white unbuttoned shirt over a brown t-shirt. A messenger bag hung from one shoulder. On the other shoulder sat the smallest digimon TK had seen to date, pink and fluffy and all around adorable. TK didn't recognize either of them, but the boy stared at him as if he were a movie star.

"Don't be stupid, Kenta," the lighter haired boy said. "He obviously didn't mean _the_ TK Takaishi." Then he paused uncertainly and gave TK a funny look. "Did he? Did you?"

"I don't know," TK said, mirroring their look of confusion. "Did I?"

"Of course not," the kid at the front of the pack said, but he sounded disturbed, as if he didn't believe his own words.

"Guys," the only girl said, "where did the Vilemon go?"

Now that they were closer, TK could clearly see why they were having a much easier time navigating the fog than him. Each of them wore a pair of sunglasses to help better see through the mist. Even Kenta, whose glasses were obviously prescription, wore a pair of clip-ons onto his frames.

"I don't know," the blue-haired boy – Henry, TK remembered, starting to match the voices with the faces – said. "Terriermon?"

"Don't look at me!" Terriermon said. "Usually if I hit something, it tends to want to hit me back!"

"And even when you don't hit something, it tends to want to hit you," Guardromon said delightfully.

"Hey!"

"Uh…" Kenta started nervously. "Does this mean we could be surrounded right now and have no idea?"

The group took an anxious step closer together as they all fumbled to get something into their hands. TK remained kneeling on the ground even as his senses tingled with unease. This whole situation was bizarre on so many levels, and they just got a whole lot weirder as he realized that each of them held a digivice in their hands. Sure, it was different than his model – he could tell that even from his viewpoint on the ground – but they were definitely digivices, which meant what? That these kids were – what had the Vilemon called him? A tamer?

They moved their digivices around in the fog as if trying to scan through the thick mists. TK was pretty sure that his digivice didn't have any sort of scan function, and he wondered if there was some sort of tamer store out there where he could get an upgrade. Maybe he could install some sort of software update so that his digivice would become update 8.1 instead of the basic 7 that nobody ever used anymore.

" _Nightmare Shocker!_ "

Terriermon let out a cry of pain as he went flying into the mist.

"Terriermon!" Henry yelled.

Then he did something odd – he pulled a bunch of playing cards out of his pocket. The fog was starting to lift rapidly, dissipating around them as if it had never been there to begin with. TK could finally make out the world around him. Spread out to his left were lanes of traffic, separated by a median. Several cars were stopped at a stoplight that appeared to be bugging out as it flashed rapidly between red and green. Pedestrians stood around, looking confused, having stopped when the fog rolled in.

The geography wasn't anything immediately recognizable. TK could have been anywhere in Japan and not been able to tell the difference whether he had his memory or not. Strip malls lined every corner of the streets surrounding him. A McDonald's sat directly to his right, which explained the smell of teriyaki that had been making his stomach growl since arriving here.

But TK felt like he'd stepped into a dream. He knew what those characters said, what the advertisement was referring to, what the stoplight meant – but which way to the highway? Where was the closest department store? He was just as lost here as he was in the Digital World.

Something about this place felt very familiar, yet not quite right.

"Guardromon, get in there!" Kazu said.

" _Guardian Barrage!_ " Guardromon said, pointing his gigantic mechanical arms toward Cheery Vilemon. Little missiles slid out of compartments hidden on his wrists before flying through the air. They exploded upon impact.

Kazu cheered. "Nice shot!"

The explosion sent Cheery Vilemon flying; he tumbled into oncoming traffic. A truck slammed into him, and he disappeared under the wheels where he was dragged a hundred yards before finally managing to get himself free. His data destabilized for several seconds before simply coming back together again like nothing had happened.

"Ow," he said, and then he launched back into the air.

Kazu cried out in protest. "That should've done it!"

"Welcome to our world," Patamon complained.

"We should get off the streets," the girl, Jeri, said. "There are too many innocent people around."

"Agreed," Henry said. "Terriermon! Let's lead them toward the park!"

"Annoy them enough so that they'll chase me?" Terriermon said. "I can do that."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised," Patamon quipped.

The edges of TK's mouth twitched, threatening to break out into a smile. "Patamon," he admonished.

"What?" Patamon asked innocently. "Call it a lucky guess."

Terriermon was too busy spinning around like a helicopter as he barreled into both Vilemon again to hear him, which was probably lucky for them. The Vilemon turned to glare at Terriermon, and he gave a cheery wave.

"I think they're annoyed, Henry!" Terriermon announced.

" _Digi-Modify! Speed Activate!_ " Henry grabbed one of the playing cards and slide it through his digivice, as if it was something that he did every day. "We'll catch up with you, Terriermon! Go on ahead!"

Terriermon didn't need to be told twice. The Vilemon took to the air and started to chase after him, and Terriermon disappeared down the street a lot quicker than TK thought he should be able to move naturally. Somehow, the card in Henry's hand had buffed Terriermon. As if things couldn't get any weirder.

"C'mon!" Henry called as he started to race down the street after them.

TK hesitated all of two seconds before he got to his feet and moved to follow. He didn't know what else he was going to do instead. Besides, he felt responsible for the Vilemon being here at all. They had only arrived here in the Real World, because they had been after him in the first place. He wanted to make sure that they didn't hurt anybody else while here.

"Will Terriermon be able to hold them off?" Kenta asked.

"Normally, yes," Henry said, "but based off of what's been going on lately…" He trailed off, which TK took to mean as a _not likely_. Henry slid another card through his digivice.

TK followed the group, staggering under his own exhaustion. He was definitely running on fumes at this point. He didn't know how long Terriermon could last without back up, but he was too tired to ask and run at the same time.

The cemented and crowded streets dispersed and gave way to forested park. The sight was quite beautiful at first glance, a complete contrast to the busy city life they had just left behind. The pathway curved through the trees and led them deeper into the park. Lovers walked hand-in-hand, families strolled through the shade, and joggers ran by without a care in the world. A few hundred yards ahead, TK saw a small explosion that he figured was a sign that the Vilemon had caught up to Terriermon.

His legs dragged along the paved path like heavy sandbags. His ankles shook from the strain. Guardromon's joints squeaked and creaked as he ran, which didn't help TK concentrate any.

In front of them, the Vilemon's voices echoed through the trees. Terriermon shouted. TK pushed himself to run faster so that he could get to him as quickly as possible to help, but then Terriermon came to them. He burst through the trees – or some form of him, anyway. He'd gone through a growth spurt in the few minutes that TK had lost sight of him, and he was now wearing a pair of pants with cannons for arms.

"Gargomon!" Henry called.

"Henry!" the Terriermon-lookalike said, "A little help!"

" _Digi-Modify! Reload Activate!_ " Henry slid another random card – or random to TK's perception – through his card reader.

"Now we're talking!" Gargomon came to a stop and turned to face the direction he had come. The Vilemon shot out of the trees, and Gargomon lined up the shot before unloading on them. Machine gun fire exploded from the cannons on his arms. The Vilemon screeched and then separated, evading most of the shots.

Guardromon marched forward, his creaky limbs echoing off of the trees, before hunkering down. He aimed his arms toward the fleeing Vilemong. " _Guardian_ —!"

Angry Vilemon spotted him at the last second and spun toward him. " _Demon Darts!_ " He slashed his claws through the air, and eight thin blades of air shot toward Guardromon, catching him in the chest. Guardromon's words caught in his throat for a second before his eyes suddenly went dark, and his arms fell limp to his sides.

"Ah, man! Guardromon!" Kazu cried.

TK's eyes widened. "Is he okay!?"

"He'll be fine," Henry answered without glancing back toward him. "He just needs to be reactivated."

Kazu tore through the cards in his hands, tossing useless ones over his shoulder and littering the walkway. "Kenta! What'd you do with the Reactivation Card!?"

"I put it back!" Kenta swore.

" _Nightmare Shocker!_ " Cheery and Angry Vilemon called together. The blasts of dark energy shot from each of their mouths and ate through the digital bullets emitting from Gargomon's cannons. The energy hit Gargomon from both sides, knocking him right off his feet. He laid on the ground completely dazed for several seconds.

Kazu let out a cry of frustration and threw his deck of cards. They collided with the cards in Henry's hands, and 200 cards littered the paved park path. "Kazu!" Henry snapped.

"Rika's here!" Jeri suddenly announced with a relieved smile.

TK turned to look at where she pointed. He didn't see anybody at first; then, at the end of the park path, he saw a spec of red riding atop what looked like a giant yellow fox. If TK wasn't already so used to strange, he may have needed to check eyesight on that one.

Henry's expression suddenly filled with horror. "Gargomon!"

Gargomon was still trying to shake off the dual attack when the Vilemon descended upon him. Angry grabbed the left foot; Cheery grabbed the right; and then they shot into the air, carrying Gargomon with them. Gargomon screamed in pain as their claws dug into his skin, and he was hauled into the air.

The redhead and her partner fox digimon were getting closer by the second, but TK knew that she wouldn't get here in time before something terrible happened. Gargomon would be destroyed and gone forever. Henry was too shocked to try to sort out the mess of cards on the ground. Kazu was on his hands and knees, back to looking for the card needed to reactivate Guardromon, muttering something about how Rika would never let him hear the end of it.

Patamon leapt off of TK's head.

"Patamon, wait!" TK said.

Patamon exploded in light. A subtle tug pulled at TK's gut, and the light grew in size. "Patamon digivolve to… Angemon!" The light faded. An angel the height of an average adult male floated in the air. Six large white wings grew from his back. He wore a white bodysuit with an iron helm that covered his eyes, leaving only his tight-lipped mouth visible. Long golden hair trailed down his back, and golden armor accented his look with sky blue sashes. He carried a golden staff in one hand.

"O-oh my," Jeri gasped.

Kazu stared. "Holy…"

"Crap," Kenta finished.

TK stepped forward, his heart pounding in his chest. "Angemon, be careful!"

Angemon moved the golden staff from one hand to the other. "Let him go," he ordered.

The Vilemon exchanged a rather concerned looked.

"Pretty please?" Gargomon added.

Angemon gripped his staff in both hands and swung the rod like a baseball bat. The Vilemon grunted with pain as the rod caught them in the gut, and they dropped Gargomon in surprise. Gargomon yelled in fear as he started to fall, but Angemon caught him by his ankle and gently lowered him to the ground. Then the angel digimon walked calmly up to the fallen Vilemon.

"He did say please," Angemon said. The golden rod in his hand glowed brightly and shrunk, making the light glow brighter and brighter until it all collected into his fist. "You have caused my partner enough pain and misery. It is time to end your reign of terror before you bring your despicable acts to this world as well."

Cheery Vilemon held up a hand. "No, wait!"

TK heard Rika and her yellow fox digimon finally catching up to them, but he stayed focused on his digimon partner.

" _Hand of Fate!_ " Angemon punched his fist out toward the two Vilemon, and the light gathered in his fist shot out like a cannon blast. The Vilemon took the full brunt of the blast and broke into data. Glittering clouds of Vilemon data struggled to reform, but Angemon pulled his golden scepter out of thin air once more and began to spin fast enough to create a cyclone. The data was pulled apart like a blender. Soon every trace of the Vilemon data was swept away by the wind in four different directions. The angel typhoon vanished, leaving Patamon left in the center of it.

TK held his arms out, and Patamon flew right into his waiting embrace. Every time TK saw Angemon enter battle, he always felt a sick feeling of fear gripping his gut, like someone was pouring acid on his heart. It left him feeling exposed, raw… vulnerable.

Gargomon stood in the middle of the park path, looking stunned but perfectly fine. He dedigivolved back to Terriermon, and Henry rushed forward to gather him into his arms. Only then did TK realize how quiet the other kids had become.

Everyone was staring at him.

"What the hell was that?" the new girl – Rika – suddenly burst out.

"An angel," Jeri breathed. "A real angel digimon…"

"Guys, his name is TK Takaishi, and he has an _Angemon_ as his _partner_ ," Kenta practically squealed. "Do you know what this means!?"

"Dude, no way!" Kazu gushed.

That was when TK realized that it hadn't only been Kenta that had recognized his name. In fact, everybody was staring at him as if he were either nuts or some sort of messiah. Only Terriermon seemed unfazed.

"Do I get to count that as a win even though Angel Boy stepped in?" he said. "I had them right where I wanted them."

The new girl wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a red vest. Her red hair was cut choppy and uneven with two thin strands hanging down either side of her face. She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work. She had high cheekbones and perfect bone structure; if she hadn't been so young and dressed like any other punk kid, TK might have thought she was a model.

She stepped forward and scrutinized TK as if he were some disgusting thing on the bottom of her shoe. TK couldn't shake the feeling that she kind of wanted to run him through with a kitchen knife.

"So," she said coldly, "who are you? You're obviously not TK Takaishi. How'd you get a digimon? What'd you do?"

"What are you talking about?" TK asked. "Why can't I be TK Takaishi? Who is he?"

"Who is he?" Kenta repeated, as if it was the stupidest thing he'd heard all year.

"Look," TK said, starting to get frustrated by all the staring, "my memory's a little fuzzy. Um, it's _gone_ , actually. Do you know me or not?"

"Know you!?" Kazu blurted out. "Dude, you're TK Takaishi! You're, like—"

"Kazu, stop," Henry interrupted suddenly. "No… we don't know you."

That last part was a lie. TK could tell from his eyes. But he could also tell that he had no intention of going back on his lies. Not right now. And TK had waited long enough for answers; he didn't feel like being stonewalled by some kid he had just met.

"Fine. If you won't tell me, I'll find answers on my own," TK said. "Thanks for saving my life. I'm going to go now."

TK turned and nearly walked right into the chest of a man standing directly behind him. The near collision made him yelp and stumble back away from the body. The man in front of him was tall, almost 6 inches taller, which was saying something since TK had towered over everybody he had met in the Real World so far except for Kazu. And the other striking thing about the man – other than his dark suit and sunglasses – was the fact that he had bright blonde hair, not too unlike his own.

"Hey, you're not a ghost!" Patamon suddenly said.

It took a second for TK to realize that the tall blonde man was not alone. Two women flanked him on either side, probably in their mid-to-late thirties. But it was the man standing next to him, in the flesh (so to speak), that caught TK's attention: Shibumi.

"You," TK spluttered.

"Hello again, TK," Shibumi said brightly. "Glad to see you made it here safely."

"More or less," the blonde man said dryly.

"Are you going to tell me who I am?" TK demanded. "I came here, now what?"

Shibumi smiled sadly. "That's a bit harder to answer."

The blonde man adjusted his sunglasses as if he were surveying the area but trying to hide it from the others. "We don't have time for this. Riley, do it."

The woman with the long reddish-brown hair stepped forward. "Sorry, kid," she said.

TK was just about to ask what for when she pulled out a small vial and sprayed it in his face. He coughed and stumbled backward, Patamon coughing in his arms as well. Extreme exhaustion suddenly overtook his limbs, and his legs collapsed out from underneath him. Someone caught him under the arms before he hit the ground. His vision darkened.

"Yamaki! What are you doing!?"

"We're getting off the streets, Mr Wong, before our new friend here causes a scene."

"Ugh, I sure hope we're getting a raise for this. I feel dirty."

"Shibumi, are you this is really the only way? Isn't there any alternative? It seems a bit excessive to drug a kid."

"Maybe. But in this state, his mind would never be able to handle the truth."

Then everything went black.


	4. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. And they do not own me!

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "plastic".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Replies to the previous chapter are often posted about an hour after the newest chapter is posted. To find the topic, navigate to the little drop down menu at the top of the screen for Forum to Anime to Digimon. Find the forum called Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

Well, hello, everybody! I know it's been a while. Hopefully you all remember where we last left off. I'm sorry it took so long, but that's just the kind of writer I am. I take long extended breaks sometimes. Also, it doesn't help that there have been things battling with my inspiration. Firstly, Digimon Adventure tri. I love that we're getting more Adventure stories, but my TK and tri's TK aren't exactly... simpatico. So, this story is even more AU than it already was! Also, Rika is hard to write, I've found. So any feedback on her in particular, I'd love to hear it. I will be participating in April's Camp Nano, just like I did last year, so hopefully I'll get some more chapters out at a reasonable pace. However, I am also selling my house, so depending on how quickly the sale goes through, I may not get nearly as much writing done as I would like. I just ask that everybody be as patient as possible! Thank you! And...

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Four**

TK was used to waking up in places that he didn't recognize, which was lucky. The white-walled sparse room that he awoke to held absolutely no familiarity of any kind.

A single bed in gray sheets and as soft as cardboard made up the room. He'd awoken on top of the sheets all alone, but that hadn't lasted long. He'd no sooner sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed before the door to the room opened. One of the women from before stood there, and though TK's memory was foggy, he remembered her distinctly gassing him. He knew he should be afraid – wasn't he just kidnapped? – but this woman didn't seem dangerous or concerned. She just nodded her head and said, "C'mon, kid." What else was TK supposed to do? He got up and followed her.

TK realized that they were in some sort of office building. Men and women dressed in dark suits walked through the halls. A meeting of important-looking people was taking place around a conference table. People wearing white lab coats talked excitedly, using lingo that went way over TK's head. And through a pair of double doors, a large screen displayed hundreds of images all around Japan, focusing in on… Were those digimon?

As the woman led TK through the halls, the adults stopped what they were doing and stared at TK. A few looked confused. One of the suits muttered something about, "What's a kid doing here?" One scientist dropped the folders in her hand, squeaked excitedly, and ducked back into her office.

TK wished he could hide too. After weeks on his own, all the attention made him uneasy. He trailed behind the woman leading him with his head down and tried to look inconspicuous.

"Why is everybody staring at me?" he asked. "Do they know who I am?"

The woman didn't answer right away, but she did come to a sudden stop, nearly making TK run into her. She glared around at the gawkers before snapping, "Do we look like a circus act to you? Back to work!"

"Uh, thanks," TK said. "Where are we? Who are you?"

"Name's Riley," she said. She swept her long flowing hair over her shoulder with such grace that TK would not have been surprised if she'd revealed to him that she was actually a model and not some secret government agent. "I was one of the agents sent to collect you."

TK stared at her. "Do you always collect your guests by knocking them out with gas or am I just special?"

"Just special," Riley said, but the corners of her lips did twitch slightly showing that she _may_ actually have a sense of humor after all.

"Is that why everybody is staring at me?" TK said. "Just because you told them to stop doesn't mean I didn't notice it."

"Yes," she said, but there was a hesitation in her voice as if she weren't telling the whole truth. "The number of children who are able to tame digimon is very small. Every time we meet a new one, it's either a threat against national security or very exciting. Depends on who you ask."

"My relationship with Patamon is… bad?"

Riley's eyes swept up and down the hallway, giving TK the distinct impression she was trying to make sure the wrong people weren't overhearing her. "Not really, but not everybody is of the same opinion as me."

"I don't remember who I am," TK said. "Not completely. You seem to know more than I do."

"I'm Government," Riley said. "It's my job to look like I know more than you do."

"Meaning…?"

Riley gave a mysterious smile before pushing her way through a pair of double doors. TK resisted the urge to growl in frustration and followed. They passed a sign that labeled the hallway as Research & Development. Riley pulled a badge out of her coat pocket and swiped it across a magnetic strip. The locked door gave a large click as it unlocked for her, and TK once again followed her silently, wondering more and more where she was leading him.

For Research & Development, this part of the office building seemed pretty relaxed. Kids fresh out of college and perhaps younger lounged around. Several older guys sat in a room playing a computer game. Each room was labeled as something important and scientific as if it were put together by some fussy science professor, but the occupants were made up of his rowdy students. A room called the Green Room had several adults – ranging from young to old – lounging around on the softest looking sofas, playing cards and drinking sodas.

Along the back stretch of the department, they passed the food court. The smell of coffee and food flooded out, beckoning him like a siren's call. The expression on his face must have been pretty obvious, because Riley smirked back at him. "We'll see about getting you something to eat. But first, we need to talk."

The thought of food made TK's stomach rumble. The scent of miso from the dining hall made his mouth water. He was certain that was sweet buns filling the air as well, but he could tell from Riley's expression that doubling back for an order to-go wasn't going to be allowed.

Riley finally stopped in front of one of the doors at the end of the hallway. "Let's see if we can improve your memory."

x X x

"Patamon!" TK cried.

His partner in crime sat stuffing his face on the table in the office. White sticky rice stuck around his mouth as he looked up from his plastic bowl, and he broke out into a grin.

"TK!" he yelled. He flew into his arms, and TK hugged him tightly. "Oh, TK, I was so worried when I woke up and you weren't by my side!"

TK's thought had been all over the map since waking, but he realized how on edge he had been without Patamon there with him. Seeing his best friend immediately relaxed him in a way that nothing else could. He swallowed back a lump in his throat and forced himself to let him go. He let out a small laugh as Patamon immediately returned back to his bowl.

"You finally found yourself some food, I see," he said.

"We weren't sure when you were going to join us or else we would have brought some for you too," a voice to his left said.

TK turned and found himself standing face-to-face with the auburn haired girl from the fog. She smiled kindly at him before moving to take a seat at the table where Patamon sat eating. The idea of food sounded so appealing, but there was so much more on his mind that it was somehow being pushed to the side. His mind was finally starting to lift out of the confused haze. This whole situation was so… bizarre.

The office appeared to be some sort of game room. Beanbag chairs were scattered around on a multi-colored bright carpet. A large television sat mounted on the wall, with several different gaming consoles laid out on the shelving below. The walls were covered in video game posters, all of which seemed to be Digimon based, making TK feel like he had just stepped into some strange alternate reality. Along the back wall were several cabinets and a mini-fridge – where they kept the secret stash of food, TK guessed.

In the center of the room, a large round wooden table sat the five kids that TK had already met. The auburn-haired girl – Jeri, TK reminded himself – sat next to the vibrant redhead, and Henry sat on the other side of her. Terriermon kept trying to steal some sticky rice from Patamon's bowl, but Patamon just kept moving it out of his reach. When Terriermon tried to scoot closer, Henry would tug on his ear with a light glare of warning, forcing him back in front of him. Kazu and Kenta sat on the other side of Henry with MarineAngemon sitting on Kenta's shoulder. TK wished he could sit down, but Riley made no move to sit. TK got the feeling that maybe he should stay standing as well.

"So…" he started to say.

The redhead was the only one of the teenagers not afraid to stare right at him, and her gaze seemed to cut right through to his core.

TK froze. He hadn't been around humans much in the last few months – at _all_ , actually – but he always had the feeling that he usually got along with pretty much everybody that he met. But this girl, he could tell that she wasn't one to be won over easily. Her glare seemed as sharp as razors.

"Why do I get the feeling I did something wrong?" TK muttered, but in the empty room, his voice echoed.

Henry turned to the redhead with a soft glare of his own. "Rika."

Rika turned toward Henry. "I've got questions I want answered," she said plainly.

"We all do," Henry sighed.

"Jeez," Terriermon said. "You're making even me nervous!"

TK looked from the group of teenagers to Riley. The combination of the kids and the digimon with the government employee just seemed completely out of place. He could tell by their body language that they were trying their best not to stare. Each of the teenagers kept sending him expectant and even excited glances, as if waiting for him to do or say something amazing. Even Riley – for all of her relaxed yet vigilant persona – kept regarding him as if she didn't know what to make of him. It was all starting to give him the creeps.

"You _do_ know me," he decided. "All of you. But I don't know how. Please, just tell me what's going on."

"First things first," Riley said, finally pushing off of the door she'd been leaning against. "We want to hear your story." She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and spoke into it. "Yamaki, we're ready for you."

TK was just about to ask who Yamaki was when the tall blonde guy from the park entered the room. Even indoors and without his sunglasses, the man didn't look any less intimidating.

"Oh, this is going to be good," Terriermon said.

Patamon looked from Terriermon to Yamaki. Recognizing him from the park as well, he abandoned his bowl and flew over to TK, landing on his head. Terriermon grabbed his bowl and happily finished the rest of the rice himself.

"Do you remember me?" Yamaki asked him.

TK resisted the urge to take a step away from him. "Unfortunately."

"First, you need to know that we brought you in the way we did for you own safety," Yamaki said.

"Even if it was completely unnecessary," Henry said.

"And creepy," Kazu added.

"No kidding," Kenta said. "That would give me nightmares for weeks!"

Yamki sent them a warning glare. Clearly the tamers being present was just a courtesy, a little gift to allow them to watch the interrogation of Takeru Takaishi, but they weren't supposed to _participate_ in it. He turned attention back to TK.

"What do you remember?" he asked. "How did you get here?"

TK found himself getting annoyed. He had so many questions of his own, but they kept brushing his off, dodging them, leaving him in the dark. But he was outnumbered here and in a place he knew nothing about, so he played along. He told his story – how he'd woken up at the base of a tree in the forest of the Digital World. He described his time roaming the terrain, learning about digimon, and relearning how to help Patamon ward of enemies.

A lot of what he learned had been intuitive, things he'd picked up from observation or somehow knew in the back of his mind already. He'd figured out that he was some sort of tamer, a human child

equipped with the ability to partner with a digimon. Children like him were rare, and some digimon believed that by defeating Patamon in battle, it would send them to a paradise beyond the Digital World. Those had been his first enemies encountered, the ones that thought that he and Patamon would be pushovers.

None of it seemed to surprise any of his audience. In fact, it seemed like everything coming out of his mouth was pretty darn ordinary – except for one thing.

"No memory at all?" Rika asked. "You _still_ remember nothing?"

"Fuzzy bits and pieces."

"That's awful…" Jeri whispered.

TK glanced around the room. He didn't want to mention Kari. It seemed too private, and he was still confused about where to find her. He was sure they were connected through the digimon – but none of this felt like the right connection.

Also, he was reluctant to share his one clear memory: Kari's face, her light brown hair and amber eyes, the way she giggled, ducked her head, and blushed lightly whenever he would call her beautiful.

Considering how beautiful the image was, she must've blushed a lot, TK thought.

He feared that if he spoke about that memory to anyone, it would evaporate like a dream. He couldn't risk that.

Yamaki crossed his arms over his chest in a thoughtful manner. "Most of what you've described is just typical Digital World behavior… well, as typical as it ever gets. The Digital World is a harsh and unforgiving place."

"There's a reason most digimon are just looking for a way out," Henry said, sharing a look with Terriermon who had finished off Patamon's lunch.

"Wait, I don't get it," Kazu said, scratching his head. "If you were in the Digital World, how did you get here?"

TK told them about the last three days – the Vilemon who wouldn't die, meeting ghost-Shibumi who turned out to be very much alive, and finally meeting Henry and the others in the fog – the Digital Field, Yamaki corrected him.

Jeri took the story over from there. She described TK and Patamon as brave and heroic. It made Patamon grin from ear to ear, but it made TK feel uncomfortable. All he'd done was chase after some kids and tell his partner to be careful.

"How old are you, kid?" Riley asked. "Sixteen?"

It seemed like such a mundane question that it took TK a moment before he could respond. "I think so."

Henry gave Yamaki a strange look. "Since when can Shibumi appear in the Digital World without being in a coma?"

Yamaki raised a single eyebrow at him. "What do you think we do here all day? Chase after you kids chasing the digimon? Shibumi and the Monster Makers have a lot of toys that you don't know about. And no, before you get the idea in your head, you cannot go to your father to find out what else we have… He's under contract not to tell you a thing."

"Is he supposed to not tell anybody or is it just me?" Henry asked, his tone dry with annoyance.

Yamaki ignored him and returned his attention to TK. "So you only have memories for the past two months. You must have been somewhere before that."

TK shrugged. It made sense; he doubted he just _popped_ into existence, but other than the glimmer of a memory about Kari, his whole life was a huge solid blank. But there was something else, too. When he woke up under that tree in the Digital World two months ago, he'd had the vaguest feeling that he'd been asleep for a _very_ long time. But that didn't really make a whole lot of sense. Did it?

"Well, we haven't been able to find anything on you or any missing person reports that would suggest this is just some hoax, so I suppose you're telling the truth," Yamaki said.

"Great," TK said. "Now that the interrogation's over with, can you just tell me who I am?"

Yamaki and Riley shared a glance while the teenagers at the table stared at each other. TK took that to mean a big fat no.

"Look, kid," Riley said, obviously deciding that she had to be the unlucky one to break the news to him, "even if we believe you, there's a lot about your story that just doesn't add up."

TK crossed his arms and frowned. "Like what?"

Yamaki mimicked his look, making it pretty clear that he wasn't going to be intimidated by some punk kid with a Patamon. "Even if we believe that you're—" He caught himself from saying something else, annoying TK more. "If we _accept_ your story," he said instead, "you're still not a typical Digimon Tamer. How'd you get into the Digital World in the first place?"

"Man, where's Ryo?" Kenta whined. "I bet he has all the answers."

Rika rolled her eyes. "We don't need Ryo."

"I bet _he'd_ be able to tell us what's going on," Kazu said.

"He'll be by later, but…" Henry stopped and sent a look toward TK that he couldn't decipher. "He seemed just as confused as the rest of us."

"I think you just broke Kazu and Kenta's fangirl hearts, Henry," Terriermon said.

"Hey!" the boys exclaimed.

Yamaki rubbed at his temples as if he were starting to get a headache. "Can we get back on topic?"

"Your Patamon," Riley said, taking over.

TK bristled, feeling himself instantly getting defensive. "What about him?"

"We haven't seen a single celestial digimon despite the programming being there. Not a single one has shown up," Yamaki said. "That's… strange."

"I'm not strange," Patamon said.

"You're not strange," Jeri cooed. "You're adorable!"

Rika made a disgusted sound while TK felt Patamon puff up on top of his head, obviously letting the compliment boost his ego.

Yamaki shook his head. "That's not even getting into how you brought two Wild Ones into the middle of Downtown Shinjuku. You assisted in destroying public property. You've created a PR disaster for my department by allowing Patamon to digivolve in public view. You are already quite the headache."

That deflated Patamon's ego instantly. "We didn't mean to…" he whimpered.

"Are we in trouble?" TK asked, his eyes wide.

"Not with me," Yamaki sighed, sounding tired. "And I'm trying to keep it that way. Your digivice... do you know what it's called?"

TK grimaced as Yamaki laid out the charges against him. He was starting to feel a lot less like a hot shot and more like some juvenile delinquent. He pulled his digivice off of his belt and compared it to Henry's laid out on the table. While Henry's was melded into a strange organic shape, his own was just a simple oval. Green siding. A screen. An antenna. There was nothing seemingly special about his digivice, and in fact, it looked a little lackluster next to the other digivices in the room. Even so, the device felt important to him, like it was a part of him. Snapshots of his life existed in this device, he just had to figure out had to access them.

"No," he said.

"And your D-Terminal?" Yamaki continued.

TK checked his pocket. The D-Terminal sat where it always did. He pulled it out, but then realized he'd never shown Yamaki the D-Terminal. Henry and the others hadn't seen it either. And sure, he'd been out for a couple of hours, but how did they even know it was connected to the Digital World at all?

But it was far too late to pretend it didn't exist. He flipped open his D-Terminal. The kids around the table stood up to get a better look at the screen only to be faced with static.

Kazu let out an annoyed breath. "What gives? I wanted to see his Digiegg!"

"Side effect," Yamaki answered for him, "of bringing him to the Real World the way we did."

"Shibumi did warn us, and he's usually right," Riley said. "Still, I had hoped…" She shook her head, as if dismissing the idea.

Jeri leaned forward. "But he was in the Digital World for months, maybe he's seen something that Ryo didn't. Maybe he's come across Takato!" She turned to TK. "Did you meet another tamer while you were there?"

Kazu bounced in his seat. "Yeah! He's this short kid with brown hair and these goofy goggles—"

"He would have told us if he had," Rika said, glaring at Kazu.

A strange expression crossed TK's face at the mention of the goggles, but whatever memory had been trying to break through to the surface quickly slipped through his fingers. He pocketed his D-Terminal and secured his digivice back to his belt. "I haven't seen… well, anyone since I've woken up, except for you guys. Who's Takato?"

Rika gave Kazu an _I told you so_ look, giving TK the impression that she was giving Jeri a pass on purpose. Henry took a breath and leaned forward before answering, "He is… was our friend." A collective wince stretched across the table at the past tense, and TK wondered if he should have asked at all. "He was another tamer. He had a partner Guilmon. Neither have been seen since last October."

"And it's not just the two of them," Rika said.

"Impmon's gone too…" Jeri whispered.

TK furrowed his eyebrows together, trying to process all of the information he was being fed at once. He hadn't paid much attention to the weather outside while chasing down the Vilemon, but winter didn't really seem to fit. "Wait… what month is it now?"

"It's June," Kenta said.

Patamon stared at the group. "You mean they've been missing for eight months?"

"That's a really long time…" TK said faintly, unable to say what he was _actually_ thinking, but it must have been written all over his face.

"They're not dead!" Rika snapped. "We haven't given up."

"Yeah, Guilmon is too hardheaded to let anything happen to Takato," Terriermon said.

Jeri blinked her eyes rapidly and had to look away from him. TK got the feeling that this Takato guy might've meant more to her than just a friend.

Henry cleared his throat. "We were hoping now that it's summer, we'd have more time to look. But… we're not really sure where to start."

TK frowned. "Wait. What day is it?"

"June 16th," Rika said.

A chill went down TK's spine. "The summer solstice… That's June 21st, right? Vilemon mentioned that date. He said that the real world was going to be attacked on that day, something about some digimon name Huanglongmon, and an army marching through a portal. You're telling me that day is five days from now?"

It was like TK had just sucked all of the air out of the room. Every face stared at him in shock as if waiting for the punchline. Then Yamaki made a small sound and nodded to Riley. She turned, opened the door, and gave the hallway a quick scan. Finding nothing, she shut the door and locked it behind her.

Yamaki gave TK a hard look. "You will say nothing about that outside of this room," he ordered before giving the other tames the same look. "None of you. That will only make everything worse."

"Make what worse?" Patamon asked.

"Panic," Riley answered.

TK waited for her to elaborate for half a second before being unable to keep his mouth shut any longer. "So it's true. Did you already know? Can we stop it?"

TK had just met these people. He didn't really trust them, and he wasn't sure whether or not he even liked this Yamaki guy or his sidekick Riley. But he wanted to help. The teenagers at least – they were tamers, the same as him. They had the same enemies. Besides, TK remembered what Shibumi had told him: it wasn't just this city at risk. His old life, the people from it, the entire world might be destroyed. Whatever was coming, it was going to be huge.

"I think we've talked enough for now," Yamaki said.

"No!" Rika said, getting to her feet. "I want to hear more about this. If the real world's in danger—"

"We have a right to know—!" Henry started.

Yamaki sent the two teenagers a look that gave TK the distinct impression that he was only here as a courtesy, and they were quickly pushing their luck. Once they both silenced their protests, Yamaki said, "Riley, take Takeru and Patamon to the director. Brief him. Answer his questions. Tell him what we do here."

"Yes, Yamaki."

TK still had so many questions, he felt like his brain would melt, but Yamaki had made it clear that this little audience was over. He glanced back toward Rika and the others, and he found himself staring into mirrors of his own expression: desperation to stop whatever was coming. And in that moment, TK realized that as alone as he felt, he wasn't completely alone.

"Good luck," Terriermon said.

MarineAngemon chirped out a few encouraging notes. Patamon dropped into his arms. Rika got to her feet and stepped up next to TK. She regarded him with something close to understanding.

"Don't give him anything," she said quietly, her gaze unblinking. "He's not to be trusted."

TK wanted to ask what she meant, but Riley placed a hand on his shoulder and guided him out the door.


	5. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. But I do own too much stuff, yeesh!

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "combination".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Replies to the previous chapter are often posted about an hour after the newest chapter is posted. To find the topic, navigate to the little drop down menu at the top of the screen for Forum to Anime to Digimon. Find the forum called Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

Also written for April's Camp Nano. This chapter brings me to 4,209/10,000. Yes, I have an extremely small word count goal this month. I mentioned possibly selling my house, and it went through. I have to be out of here by the 29th, so unfortunately, that has made April all about moving. I didn't want to go all of April without writing a little bit, though, hence the small word count goal. I'm honestly just happy I'm putting out anything at all! I hope you all...

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Five**

On the way to the director's office, Riley bought him a bottle of fizzy pop and a sesame rice ball from the office cafeteria.

TK inhaled the rice ball. The fizzy pop was great. Now, TK thought, if he could just get a shower, a change of clothes, and some uninterrupted sleep, he'd finally start to feel human again as opposed to some strange half-digimon creature wandering around the Real World.

Just the thought of a nice warm bed and a hot shower made his eyelids feel heavy. He brought a hand up to cover his mouth as he yawned.

Riley glanced toward him. "We'll get you a nice place to rest soon where you can sleep and get a shower." TK sighed in anticipation.

They stepped into a spacious-looking elevator with 51 buttons of where they could go, 48 floors and 3 basements. Patamon made a small gasp at the number of buttons in front of them from his spot on top of TK's head. The elevator refused to move until Riley pulled her ID badge off of her neck and swiped the magnetic strip against the sensor, setting the elevator in motion and sending them upward toward the 48th floor. TK's stomach flip-flopped uncomfortably as they ascended toward the top of the government building.

"What do you people actually do here?" he asked.

Riley stood with her hands clasped behind her back. "Our original purpose was to monitor the electronic communications moving throughout Japan to identify and lockdown any potential threats."

TK raised an eyebrow. "You spied on people."

Riley didn't deny it.

"Sounds kinda creepy," Patamon said.

"So where do the digimon come in?" TK asked.

"About four or five years ago, Hypnos started to intercept electronic signals that weren't used in any communications system we had ever seen," Riley continued. "At the same time, reports started flooding in about strange monsters appearing all over Japan – right where those strange signals were originating."

"The digimon were coming to Real World," TK realized.

Riley nodded. "We call it Bio-Emerging, which is what those Vilemon did earlier today."

"Does that happen a lot?" Patamon asked.

"It used to happen a lot more," Riley said. "Things have slowed down a lot, but it still happens enough that we're necessary."

For some reason, that surprised TK. He wasn't sure why. The last few weeks he'd been so worried about surviving day to day, and he'd seen no hints or signs of how to get to the Real World. He had started to doubt his own intuition of it even existing. The idea that while he and Patamon been scavenging for food digimon all over the Digital World had been casually appearing in the Real World – that seemed almost unfair.

"So Henry and Rika and the others – they work for you guys?"

The corners of Riley's mouth twitched as if she found the question amusing. "No."

"Then why are they—?"

"Before we accepted the tamers' help, part of our job was to create computer programs that could locate the Wild Ones before they bio-emerged and terminate them," Riley said.

Patamon's eyes widened. TK glanced up toward his partner, feeling his heart clench in his chest. "You'd kill them," he said.

"Yes. We didn't understand digimon then," Riley admitted. "Not fully. It wasn't until we learned more from Takato and the other tamers that we started to understand and come around. Now we do everything we can to avoid history from repeating itself, but not everybody feels the same. Bio-emergences have started to pick up again here recently, and more and more people are crying out for a military presence."

"Against digimon?" TK said.

"That seems like a bad idea," Patamon said.

Riley nodded. "We don't have a reliable and safe way to return digimon to the Digital World as it is, so destroying them is often the only way to ensure public safety. But the last thing we need is for the Japanese government to declare martial law and start a war with the digimon when they have no idea what they're up against. That's why we try to work alongside the tamers."

"So it's more like a partnership?" TK said.

"An unsanctioned one," Riley added. "Not everybody agrees that the kids should be involved in our affairs, but Yamaki and I – along with a few others – know that the tamers are the best at containing any digital threats that bio-emerge into our world."

"So not everybody is your biggest fan," TK guessed, "because of the tamers – er, us?"

Riley adopted a scowl. "That's one way to put it. And things have only gotten worse since October."

"When that Takato kid disappeared?"

TK knew he'd hit a sore spot. Riley pursed her lips as if she were trying to contain saying something she'd regret.

"Let's just say it was a PR disaster when one of the tamers we were working with up and disappeared," Riley said. "The Digital World had to be involved, and Yamaki ended up shouldering most of the blame. He was demoted, and the worst person possible was put in charge."

TK had a feeling he wasn't going to like this. "And that's who we're going to see now?"

"Oh, brother," Patamon bemoaned.

"Come on," she said as the elevator doors opened. "I'll show you the best view in all of Japan."

x X x

They stopped at a set of windows that extended from floor to ceiling. The building was situated in the middle of downtown Shinjuku and was the tallest building in the district, so they could see pretty much everything.

Buildings on top of buildings were built as far as the eye could see. Skyscrapers touched the horizon, and the further ones disappeared into the foggy skyline. Apartment buildings and businesses were scattered throughout the city, making all of the buildings blend into one big gray and blue mess. Even from this far up, TK could see people walking along the ground below in the plaza, shoppers milling around as they moved from market to market, parents walking their kids home from school, and salarymen heading home after a hard day's work.

It was beautiful, but despite knowing that Japan was where he was from, nothing looked remotely familiar. TK put his hand up against the glass and stared through his fingers down at the world below. Great, he thought. He'd found his way back to the Real World, and he was just as lost here as he was anywhere. He would never find where he belonged, where he was from. His best hope was to make friends with a government agency that couldn't seem to decide whether he was a threat or an asset. Maybe if he behaved really well, they'd let him actually leave once in a while.

Standing here, staring down at the beauty of Japan, TK felt something stirring inside of him, pulling at his heart like a band-aid trying to be removed slowly.

"TK?" Patamon asked gently as TK dropped his head and closed his eyes.

"I'm okay. I just—I just wish I remembered and knew what was going on, what I should do."

His voice cracked. He hadn't meant to get emotional, but he was exhausted and scared and above all else, homesick for a home he didn't remember. He'd been lost for so long, he would've given anything for someone to just tell him a single fact about his life. He needed guidance. He wanted to know something, some fact, about his life for certain without feeling as if he were grasping for straws and missing memories.

Patamon rubbed his wing against TK's cheek, wiping away a tear trying to escape down his face. "It'll be okay. We're here now. Rika, Henry, and Terriermon may seem like a weird lot, but I think they're on our side."

He felt awkward struggling against a breakdown with a government agent hovering just a few feet behind him, but he was glad for his own dignity's sake that Riley didn't try to offer him any comfort of her own.

To their left, several men in black business suits filed out of a set of double doors.

"Hanaharu's out of his meeting," Riley said. "Let's go."

x X x

Compared to the offices back on the floor he'd woken up on, Hanaharu's office definitely announced that he was the boss.

The marble tiling expanded across the entire floor. The only part of the top floor that seemed _not_ to be part of Hanaharu's office were the elevators and short hallway they had just entered from, but everything else was owned by and controlled by the boss-man. Glass walls separated Hanaharu's secretary from his main office, and TK could see a separate conference room around the corner behind the elevators.

In first glass-domed room sat the secretary's desk. She barely glanced up at them before waving them in; she had far more important things to deal with than some random kid and a Patamon. In the center of the main office stood the director. He was a tall and toned man with a head of dark hair and expensive taste. TK didn't know much about clothes, but TK could've been told that the very stitching of this man's dark-colored suit was woven with pure diamond and he would've believed it. His entire look spoke of money, and lots of it.

Riley stopped just a few steps into the office, waiting for the director to notice them first.

"This is Director Hanaharu," she said quietly. "Whatever you do, don't mention your amnesia. Don't do or say anything to draw attention to yourself."

"What?" TK asked.

"Trust me," she said.

"Why not?" Patamon asked.

"What are you talking about?" TK said.

Riley gave him a look that quieted him immediately. He wasn't sure what Riley was going on about, but he thought about the warning Rika had left him with. This guy, whoever he was, he didn't think he was going to like him very much.

The director was talking into a Bluetooth in his ear as he paced in front of his desk. He seemed completely oblivious to their presence, too self-absorbed in his own words to notice he was no longer alone. He let out a boisterous laugh about something that went way over TK's head before giving a cheery farewell.

"Idiot," he said cheerfully after hanging up.

TK frowned. "So, what?" he muttered quietly to Riley. "He's your boss or something?"

The balding man turned. He had a crooked smile and a slightly crazy look in his eyes, like he'd had one too many espresso shots. He looked like a typical businessman with his phone in one hand and a pen in the other. Yet TK decided that his first instinct had been correct: he was not going to like this guy.

"Director," Riley said, "we found another tamer. This is Takeru Takaishi with a Patamon for a partner."

"Another one," the director harrumphed. "They're just popping up everywhere, aren't they?"

"Yes, sir," she said in a way that made TK believe that she actually meant _Not really_.

"Uh, hi," TK said for lack of anything better to say.

"Nice to meet you!" Patamon said.

Hanaharu looked at Patamon with a grimace of disgust. "How… cute." His gaze turned onto TK. "Takeru Takaishi, you say? Why does that name sound familiar? Have we met, boy?"

Unlike the other times that people had recognized his name, TK felt his stomach sink uncomfortably. He struggled for words for a moment, trying to figure out a vague way to respond that wouldn't be an outright lie. As much as he wanted to know who he was, he had a distinct feeling that he didn't want to learn it from him.

"I… don't remember," TK said, trying to sound casual.

"You may have heard his name in passing," Riley said with an uncaring shrug. But something in her eyes made TK realize that she was making up a story on the spot. "This is Yamaki's nephew."

TK was quite proud of himself for managing not to outwardly react to that story. For one, he was one hundred percent certain that was _not_ true. For two, the idea alone was pretty horrifying from the few interactions he'd had with the man so far. And for three, he was pretty sure if he had reacted, Hanaharu would have seen right through the lie immediately from the way he was staring right at his face.

"Is he now?" Hanaharu murmured. "I don't remember Yamaki mentioning a sister."

"They're estranged," Riley said.

 _So estranged she doesn't exist_ , TK took that lie to mean.

Hanaharu stepped away from his desk. He was probably close to sixty with wrinkles around his eyes and mouth with jowls that were starting to sag. He could have easily passed for older. If TK ignored all of the warnings he'd received not to cross this man, he could even imagine that he was completely harmless – for all of two seconds. As he got closer, TK could see the way Hanaharu's eyes glittered with harsh curiosity, like he wasn't above more unsavory measures to get the answers he sought, no matter how young or innocent the victim.

Hanaharu narrowed his eyes. "Yes, I suppose I can see it. You seem nervous."

"Should I be?" TK asked.

"What reason could you possibly have to be nervous?"

TK's active imagination could come up with quite a few creative reasons as to why, but he knew that they were all conjecture. He was coming up with hyperboles and ghost stories based on assumptions, but something in his instincts told him that he wasn't too far off. "I don't know. What am I doing here?"

"Just having you check in." Hanaharu gestured around his grand office. "I like to keep tabs on all of the tamers, make sure we keep them in line, and that they don't run off and destroy public property with their… pets. When did this creature appear to you?"

Riley spoke for him, which was probably a good thing since TK was only two seconds away from saying something he'd regret. She told Hanaharu a total tall tale about TK meeting Patamon two months ago and how Yamaki had only learned of his relationship with his partner when he came to visit today. TK kept his lips sealed the entire exchange, but he listened closely to her story in case he'd have to regurgitate any of this information back later. And even though the history was completely fake, it at least gave him something to cling to as some form of identity for now.

When she mentioned Angemon, Hanaharu looked surprised.

"Angemon?" he mused. "I was told that there was a problem with forming celestial data. Something about it destroying every digimon that attempted to digivolve to a celestial form?"

He glanced at Patamon as if he suddenly found him a little more interesting. TK resisted the urge to hide him behind his back.

"The summer solstice is this week," TK said, changing the subject. "The Vilemon said that there'd be an invasion on that day. Did your data tell you that?"

"No, boy, it did not," Hanaharu said. "The Digital World is a frustratingly hard to discern place, and it's only made harder by Shibumi's unwillingness to share information with us."

"Don't you… I don't know," TK said, "have contact with a digital entity or something? Whoever chose us to be tamers?"

"A digital entity that _chose_ you?" Hanaharu smiled. "What a cute idea. You must watch too much television. No, my dear Takeru, I'm afraid we are fresh out of digital entities. You were not chosen by anybody. You are not special. You becoming a tamer is a fluke, a mistake of the system, one we're trying to rectify."

"I'm not a mistake!" Patamon said.

"Well, you certainly weren't _intended_ to exist," Hanaharu chortled.

"Director," Riley interrupted, "perhaps now is not the time to discuss political views."

Hanaharu's lips curled. "I suppose not." A pleasant ringtone sounded throughout the room, and Hanaharu pulled his phone out of his pocket. He hummed curiously. "A chain letter? How on earth did they get my email…" he murmured.

"Sir?" Riley said.

"One of those kids, no doubt," he continued. "Quite amusing really. And pretty poorly worded. Listen to this: _Six that fate chose from the world that mimics earth, and six that chose fate from the world that man did birth, must unite against the enemies darkness has risen to keep earth itself locked in its prison._ " He chuckled and moved as if to shut his phone off.

TK listened to the words, not really expecting them to mean anything. But something tugged painfully at his gut and threatened close his throat.

"What's the rest of it say?" he whispered.

"The rest of it?" Hanaharu repeated. He frowned at the inconvenience but returned his attention back to his phone all the same. " _Gluttony must not be allowed to hide for the Doors of Darkness must be closed with foes side-by-side. Then the world will crumble with its final breath as a miracle leads them to victory or death._ "

A chill traveled straight down TK's spine. For a moment, he thought a storm had started to brew outside causing the entire building to shake. Then he realized his whole body was trembling. "That's important."

Hanaharu arched an eyebrow. "Nonsense."

Riley glanced at TK out of the corner of her eye. "Who sent you that email, sir?"

He glanced back down at his phone. "Unknown. But as I said, it's obviously a prank sent by one of those kids we've let in under our tutelage while under the direction of someone with severely poor judgment." He smirked. "Chosen by fate, what a funny idea."

"You're a funny idea," Patamon grumbled.

Riley cleared her voice. "Takeru needs an access badge for our floor. Can he have one or not?"

TK could almost see Hanaharu's mind working, calculating whether or not TK would be useful. He held out his hand and pointed to his digivice on his belt. "That's an interesting device. May I?"

TK didn't want to hand over his digivice, but he could tell from the way Hanaharu simply stood there with his hand outstretched that it wasn't really a request. Feeling like he didn't really have much of a choice, he took the device off of his belt and put it in the man's hand. Hanaharu turned the device over before grasping it with both hands in a way so that he could pull it apart.

"Hey!" TK protested, his heart leaping into his throat.

The device refused to come apart. Hanaharu's knuckles turned white with the effort, and his face started to turn purple with frustration. Finally giving up, he muttered a few curse words under his breath, and tossed the digivice back to TK.

"I've always wondered what's inside those things," he said. "But, of course, Yamaki is expressly against us taking one to experiment on. Such a shame. Well – yes, he can get an access badge. Go, go, I don't care. Those are the regulations currently in place after all."

TK clutched his digivice to his chest, an angry glare on his face.

Riley's shoulder relaxed. "Good. Come on, TK."

"Oh, and Riley," Hanaharu said. "Changes are coming to Hypnos. When the Prime Minister visits on Friday, my promotion and the changes I want to implement will be finalized, and I hope you'll remember—"

"Yamaki is still head of Hypnos, and he knows the system best," Riley said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're just the figurehead. You'd be lost without him."

"Oh, I have no doubt," Hanaharu said, making TK believe that he had all the doubt in the world. "His expertise and knowledge is invaluable to me. But people aren't happy. Attacks are becoming more frequent, property damage is estimated to be in the billions, unemployment and homelessness is on the rise, and then… of course… the Matsuki incident. This has not been a good year for him. We can't have the people not trusting us for much longer. Change is a must. I hope you'll support me in this transition period. It would do wonders for our relationship and your career."

Riley's face remained impassive, but TK saw her hands tighten into fists. "I see."

Hanaharu ventured back over to his desk, walking as if he didn't have a care in the world. He removed his Bluetooth from his ear and set it and his phone onto his desk.

"If I have enough support in these coming months," Hanaharu told Riley, "I may even be able to protect Yamaki from any backlash people try to throw his way. God forbid he take the fall for… well, everything."

TK had to bite his lip to keep his mouth shut. The guy was blackmailing Riley to protect Yamaki. That much was obvious. TK hadn't even decided if he liked Yamaki or Riley yet, but whether or not he liked Hanaharu? That was an easy no.

Riley's knuckled turned white. "I'll take that into consideration."

"Excellent," Hanaharu said. "You may go now."

Riley put her hand on TK's shoulder and steered him out of the office. Despite her stronger than necessary grip, he was more than happy to follow her.

x X x

The doors to the elevator opened to Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta waiting out in the hall. TK glanced over to Riley who had been stubbornly silent the entire ride down, and she gave a small nod. TK took that as a sign that he was finally allowed to go where he pleased, at least within the confines of the government-controlled building. Jeri and Kenta listened patiently as he gave them a brief recap of what happened in Hanaharu's office as Kazu led them down the hall.

"Riley told him that you were related to _Yamaki_?" Kenta repeated. "Tough luck."

Jeri giggled. "He's not that bad."

" _I_ wouldn't want to be related to him," Kenta said. "Even in pretend!"

MarineAngemon chirped in agreement.

"Man, I _hate_ that Hanaharu guy," Kazu said. "If I had my way—"

"He's pretty scary," Jeri said.

"He didn't look too bad. I bet I could take him," Patamon said.

Kenta shuddered. "He doesn't look like much, but… he's got too much power and not a lot of love for us or our digimon." He reached up and gently stroked the top of MarineAngemon's head.

"I can't believe he's the director of… all of this," TK said. "He seems like a jerk."

"He's a big one," Kenta agreed. "But he wasn't always in charge. It was Yamaki for a while."

"So, what happened?"

"Four years ago, Yamaki got fired when he created this program called the Juggernaut that was meant to destroy all digimon," Jeri explained quietly. "It went bad. More powerful digimon were able to use the combination of the program and the excess energy created by it to digivolve and bio-emerge into our world, and when he tried to amplify the power, it, well…"

"Boom," Kenta deadpanned.

TK's eyes widened.

"He learned from his mistake, though!" Jeri added quickly. "And he realized that we and our digimon weren't the enemy. We were just trying to help."

"Yeah, but not before causing us a lot of grief," Kazu muttered.

Kenta gave him a look. "You weren't even a tamer yet! It wasn't like he was causing _you_ grief."

Kazu glared at him. "Neither were you!"

TK looked between the three of them. That didn't seem like the end of the story. "So, what happened?"

"Hanaharu happened," Kazu said. "That idiot tried to reactivate Juggernaut while we were in the Digital World. He could've killed us! He _nearly_ killed Takato and Henry!"

"Yamaki pretty much saved the day with that one," Kenta said. "Got his old job back, and everything was pretty much cool again by the time we got back."

"We didn't even know of Hanaharu's involvement until it was all over and done with," Jeri said. "But we didn't think we'd ever have to deal with him again, not after he messed up so badly."

"Turns out, if you have a lot of friends and a lot of money, nearly killing a bunch of kids is merely a setback."

TK turned. A boy about his age (maybe older) stood with his arms crossed and his back leaning against the wall as if he had been waiting for them. He had tan skin with blue eyes and spikey brown hair. He wore brown gloves with a rustic red button-up shirt and brown cargo pants. A blue digivice hung from his belt next to a black leather pouch that was just the right size for playing cards. He'd spoken without looking up, and when he finally did, his eyes immediately zeroed in on TK.

For a microsecond, the boy seemed shocked – panicked even, like he'd been caught in a searchlight.

"Ryo!" Kazu cried. "It's about time!"

"Yeah, where were you?" Kenta whined.

Jeri stepped forward. "Ryo, this is TK. He's a tamer, one of us."

The boy regained his composure and held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "I'm Ryo Akiyama."


	6. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. I do however own up to my absence. Whoops.

 **Author's Notes** : Written for Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "cell".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Replies to the previous chapter are often posted about an hour after the newest chapter goes up. To find the topic, navigate to the little drop down menu at the top of the screen for Forum to Anime to Digimon. Find the forum called Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

This chapter was written last year, but I didn't post it because I wasn't sure if I liked it. I've sat on it for a while, and I've finally decided that it's good enough. I'm not going to say I'm "back" per se, but I am writing a little again. It's nice. I've also been considering posting The Lost Tamer and this story on Ao3, but I have no idea if Ao3 has a Digimon fanbase presence at all. It doesn't seem to, so it's probably not worth it. There are pros and cons to Ao3, though. Pro: I really like their review system. I like openly and publicly replying to reviews (as you all know). That's so much more my style. Con: The tag system is lame lame lame. Another con: Again, the Digimon fandom is tiny as it is, and I'm pretty sure it's even tinier on Ao3. But maybe my perception is off. Hmmm... Anyway!

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Six**

As he walked through the halls of Hypnos with Rika by his side, Henry replayed the day's events in his mind. Most of it seemed to have come from some weird dream.

That morning while wandering downtown with Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta as they waited for a Wild One to appear – before TK showed up – Henry had almost told the others the truth. The four of them had been walking around for a few hours already in the early morning fog, ignoring the way passersby kept sending Guardromon strange looks. They had been talking about Takato, trying to keep each other cheered up over the fate of their friend, saying that he probably was fine, keeping the peace in the Digital World somewhere.

"He and Guilmon are probably fighting together as Gallantmon right now," Kazu said, with his arms thrown up behind his head.

"Yeah, and kicking some major butt while they're at it!" Kenta said.

Jeri smiled sadly. "Knowing Takato, you're probably right." Even without a digimon partner, she was still part of the team. Takato made sure of that years ago when they first started to work side-by-side with Hypnos. Jeri was like their own personal encyclopedia and cheerleader, all wrapped up into one. To make sure she had a place in their little ragtag team, she'd made sure to go out of her way to learn everything she could about Digimon. She kicked Kazu and Kenta's butts on a weekly basis at the very least. Then again, she _was_ being taught and trained by the former Digimon Queen herself, so that wasn't too much of a surprise. Henry found the way that Rika took Jeri under her wing to be especially kind, but he'd never say that aloud. She'd probably hit him, and he knew better than to anger the vibrant redhead – no matter how pretty she looked when she was angry.

 _Yeah, they're probably right_ , he thought. _Takato's probably in the middle of some major battle as Gallantmon right now… Of course, he'd probably be dead afterward, but at least he'd win the fight…_

It was downright depressing to even think of it. Henry, Rika, and probably Takato – all sharing the same affliction. Of course, it was only him and Rika now, them against the world with the ticking clocks hanging over their heads that only they could see. Six months ago, the two of them had decided not to disclose the truth to the others with everything else going on, but it seemed irrational now. Just habit forcing him to keep his mouth shut. And yet, as long as Rika wanted to keep it a secret, he would too. What he wouldn't give to be able to take this problem away from her… which was stupid, as Rika was probably more capable of dealing with, well, _everything_ than he was.

He tried to imagine what Rika would say to the idea of him wanting to protect her: _What do I look like? Princess Pretty Pants? I can handle myself._

Yes. Yes, she could.

Hard to believe it had only been eight months since he'd left the Matsuki's bakery in shock – Takato and Guilmon, _poof_ , vanished into thin air.

So much had happened since then: Impmon going missing, the discovery of their affliction, the appointment of Hanaharu as unofficial director Hypnos. Through it all, he'd kept Terriermon as close to his side as he was allowed, knowing that at any moment they could both disappear in an explosion of data.

 _Don't fight, Henry_ , his father had said with a shaking voice. _Whatever you do, stay out of the fight. For both of your sakes._

The problem was that it was pretty much impossible. With Ryo in and out of the Digital World looking for Takato, that left only Kenta and Kazu to deal with things if he and Rika suddenly decided to retire. And it wasn't that Kenta and Kazu were useless, per se. They just… needed help. A lot of help. Rika was so stubborn that no amount of medical advice was going to keep her out of the fight, and Henry couldn't let her face this alone. And if it weren't them, then who? Suzie? Henry would die before he let that happen, which was pretty much what he was doing. Every bio-emergence, he just prayed that the enemy wouldn't be too tough – that a biomerge wouldn't be necessary. Because if he was fully honest with himself, he wasn't ready to die just yet.

Maybe he just needed to take his partner's advice: _Momentai, Henry! At least we'll go together!_

How comforting.

Wandering Japan with Jeri, Kenta, and Kazu, he tried to keep his mind off of it. He loved spending time with his friends, but it wasn't the same without Takato and Rika. Takato was, well, _gone_ , and Rika was unfortunately stuck at some modeling shoot with her mother. She said she'd skip out the second her digivice picked up a Wild One signal, but he wished she were here now. They'd been spending a lot of time together ever since Takato's disappearance; they didn't really have anyone else to turn to. He'd grown to look forward to their time together. He tried not to think too hard on it, but he'd found himself looking around for her to show up before she got to their meeting spot, perking up the second he saw her face, and feeling sad when she had to go. Logically, he knew the signs. Emotionally, he chose to ignore them the best he could. But when Kazu unexpectedly asked what in the world he was thinking so hard about as he daydreamed about her showing up at any second, he realized he was in some serious trouble.

Then Takeru Takaishi had arrived.

Sure, Henry had seen fictional characters become real before. He'd been in the middle of playing the Digimon video game when Terriermon had appeared in his arms four years ago, after all. But never a person. And never a celestial digimon. And Angemon – _the_ Angemon – at that! Henry had found himself star struck for possibly the first time ever.

He could still feel the fear gripping his heart as the Vilemon threatened to rip Gargomon in two right before his very eyes. If not for Angemon and TK, those disgusting digimon would have had their way. Gargomon would've been nothing but a pile of data.

After the very public kidnapping of a very real fictional character, Hypnos had dragged the tamers into their headquarters for a debriefing. They met with Riley, Yamaki, and TK, all the while being forced to lie straight to TK's face. It made Henry feel like the worst person in the world, but did they have a choice?

The door closed behind TK and Riley as they left the room. Kenta raised a hand. "Okay, question. Is there a reason we can't just come clean to TK? This feels wrong."

"Don't be dumb," Rika grumbled as she retook her seat next to Henry. "You think we like doing this? We have to."

"Why?" Kazu asked, leaning forward on the table. "I mean, if it were me, I'd totally want to know that I'm some super cool butt-kicking famous digidestined that saved the world once or twice."

"And that everyone you know and love doesn't exist?" Henry added quietly.

The room froze.

Kazu scratched the back of his neck. "Guess I didn't think of that part…"

"You wouldn't," Rika said.

"That would be awful," Jeri said. "No friends… no family… no place to call home…"

"But at least Patamon's real," Kenta said. "I mean, that has to count for something, right? He's not _totally_ alone."

Rika scoffed. "He's not alone at all. That's why you brought him here, isn't it?" She looked over at Yamaki.

Yamaki didn't say anything for a moment. His expression was tight, his suit pressed but with the barest hints that he may have dressed a little hastily with the uneven way his shirt was tucked in, and his eyes looked hardened and uncertain without his sunglasses to hide behind. Henry didn't dare point any of this out.

"Assuming all of this is true, yes," he said finally.

"You don't really believe that this could all be a hoax, do you?" Henry said slowly. "Shibumi's involved somehow; something's going on."

Yamaki pinched the bridge of his nose as if a headache were coming on. "So he is." He sighed. "Look, we don't fully understand what's going on here, so all I need is for you kids not to make things any more difficult for us."

"By doing your job for you, you mean," Rika said.

"By making it _obvious_ that you're doing our job for us," Yamaki corrected her. "There are too many eyes on us that aren't on our side this time around. I need you guys to lay low."

Henry would've liked nothing more than to be able to agree, but he knew it wasn't that simple. They didn't exactly go running around announcing to the entire city that they were fighting dangerous digimon, but when battles erupted, people usually tended to notice. Especially when Takato and Guilmon were still on the job. They were the ones that usually got all the attention that made Yamaki proud and yet annoyed him to no end. And without Takato here, they were just picking up his slack.

Yamaki continued, "The last thing we need is more attention being shined onto the Hypnos program, especially with the Takaishi kid here. If the media found out about who he really is—"

"So you do believe he's the real deal," Jeri said.

"It wouldn't be good for any of us," he finished, evading her question.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Kenta asked. "You're not asking us to just _ignore_ the digimon attacks?"

"And leave it to the military?" Rika said. "Yeah, that would end well. Not."

"I'm asking you to keep the fighting off the streets the best that you can," Yamaki said. "We both know you're the best to deal with these bio-emergences, but try convincing Hanaharu and his bosses of that. All they see is kids. We need them to see _nothing_ so that they care a lot less about what we do."

"Great," Terriermon said, rolling his eyes. "Because subtlety has always been our specialty."

Yamaki ignored him. "And whatever you do – do not tell Takaishi the truth. We need to protect him, but we can't do that if he doesn't trust us."

"Seems wrong," Jeri whispered, "getting him to trust us by lying to him."

Yamaki didn't seem to have an answer to that. Perhaps her words struck him, because he reached into his pocket and pulled out his sunglasses to put on, hiding his expression from them. "I expect you all to follow these instructions. I have to get back to work, because believe it or not, babysitting children is not my fulltime job."

"Hey, we're not children!" Kazu snapped, jumping to his feet.

Yamaki left the room.

Kazu growled, annoyed, and dropped back into his chair. "Now what?"

"Well, we can't exactly ignore what Yamaki told us," Henry said.

"Why not? It's not like Kazu listens to any other adult in his life," Kenta said.

MarineAngemon chirped in agreement.

"Because Yamaki's on our side," Rika said. Her arms were crossed, and she was glaring at the door, obviously annoyed. But Henry knew her smarts and logic were overriding her desire to respond emotionally like Kazu. "He's just trying to protect us and Renamon and the others."

"He sure has a funny way of showing it," Terriermon sing-songed.

"There's a lot of politics going on behind closed doors that we don't get to see," Jeri said. "I'm sure he's doing what he thinks is best."

"But what does this mean?" Kenta asked. "We're actually going to just lie to TK's face and pretend to be his friends?"

"Nobody says we have to pretend…" Henry said awkwardly, but he knew it was an empty attempt to make them feel better. Starting a friendship out on lies really wasn't a friendship at all. But what choice did they have?

"Alright," Kazu said, getting to his feet. "Let's get this over with."

"Where are you going?" Kenta asked.

"To go see if our resident digidestined is out of his meeting yet," Kazu said. "We're supposed to keep an eye on him and keep him from learning the truth, right? Well, what better way to keep him from asking questions than to distract him with my awesome personality?"

Jeri giggled and stood. "I'll go too."

"C'mon, MarineAngemon," Kenta said, also getting to his feet. "Let's make sure he doesn't torture TK too bad."

The three of them walked out of the room, leaving Henry and Rika alone.

Henry let out a breath. "What do you think about all of this?"

For a long moment, Rika didn't say anything. Henry wondered if she had even heard him. Then she turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder. "Renamon," she called.

Renamon phased in, appearing behind her partner's chair. "Yes, Rika?"

"What… what do you think?" she asked, hesitantly.

A delicate furry eyebrow rose in surprise before she answered, "I think… he is one of us, and we protect our own."

"By lying to him," Henry finished.

"Momentai, Henry!" Terriermon said. "At least you don't have to tell the truth!"

"Why am I not surprised that you're fine with this?"

"Renamon's right," Rika said, moving to stand. "It doesn't really matter what we think. If TK is here, then something is going on with the Digital World. And whenever something happens in the Digital World…"

"Eventually it reaches our world," Henry sighed. "So, that's it? We're lying for the Greater Good?"

"Not just that," Rika said. "Takato and Guilmon disappearing. Impmon going missing. TK showing up… Something's going on, and we need to get to the bottom of it. And if Hope Incarnate doesn't have any answers for us, there's really no reason to freak him out any more than he already is." A little pleasant chime sounded throughout the room, and Rika pulled her cell phone off of her belt. "Ryo's here."

Henry got to his feet. "Any news on Takato?"

Her eyes swept across the message, and she shook her head. "Doesn't sound like it, but he says he needs to talk to us about something else."

"Well," Terriermon said cheerfully, "that's never good!"


	7. Chapter Seven

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. RIP.

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "promise".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Replies to the previous chapter are often posted about an hour after the newest chapter goes up. To find the topic, navigate to the little drop down menu at the top of the screen for Forum to Anime to Digimon. Find the forum called Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

Again, still not really "back". Confession: I haven't even started chapter eight. But I didn't want to sit on this chapter forever like I did with Chapter Six. And I kinda like this one. It's starting to set the stage, I think. Mystery, intrigue, puppeteering already in the works by our villains. It's fun to write. Plus, I like Jeri. She came pretty easy to me. Lemme know how I did. Anyway...

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Seven**

Jeri had the strangest feeling that she was introducing two myths of legend, and she found herself holding her breath to see which one would fade from existence first. Just like Takato had.

Until that morning, Ryo was easily the biggest living legend she had ever met. He knew how to stay out of Hypnos's hair, so most of the government officials just saw him as another tamer oddball, an annoying kid who breached protocol by entering the Digital World without permission but no real threat. The tamers knew better. She hadn't known Ryo for very long, only a few years, and they were never exactly what you would call close. But she knew Ryo and his digimon partner were more dangerous than Rika, Henry, or maybe even Takato.

Then TK had arrived.

At first, when she saw him kneeling in that digital field with a Patamon on his head, Jeri had thought he might be a digimon in disguise. Even though he was beat up, dirty, and practically keeling over in exhaustion, he'd had an aura of power and the looks of an angel, with deep sea blue eyes and windblown golden hair.

Oh, and she'd recognized his name immediately, of course. Though she hadn't initially started out a fan of the anime series, she had since seen it multiple times since the D-Reaper days. It was strange, seeing an animated character come to life before her very eyes, but she'd noticed the resemblance right away, even as Kazu called the entire thing bologna.

Then Patamon had digivolved into Angemon and destroyed the Vilemon. He brandished a D-3. He'd caught Hypnos's attention after being in the Real World for mere minutes.

A real digidestined…

TK and Ryo shook hands. They studied each other warily, and Jeri fought the urge to separate them. Both boys were tall and athletic, and she was pretty sure if they decided they didn't like each other and started to duke it out, there wasn't a whole lot that Kenta and Kazu could do about it.

Despite her irrational fear, neither boy looked very frightening. In fact, they both looked like the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet on the street. Ryo had gelled brown hair that had started to wilt into his face. He was tanned with pale blue eyes, and he wore layered clothes like armor, fully equipped with a utility belt.

Jeri remembered when she'd met him. The first time she'd seen him walk up from behind Kazu and Kenta with Cyberdramon as his partner, she'd been a little frightened. Not of Ryo exactly, but his partner, the way he snarled at them even as Ryo smiled awkwardly and called him a puppy deep down. _Deep, deep_ down, it turned out. But she'd given them the benefit of the doubt. Leomon could be as cuddly as a kitten when he wanted to be, after all, maybe Cyberdramon just needed some time to warm up to them.

To this day, she still wasn't convinced by the puppy comment, but she'd come to trust the two as a partnership quick enough.

TK furrowed his eyebrows. "I… Do I know you?"

Ryo shrugged. "I don't know. Do you?" He looked at the others for an explanation.

Jeri hesitated. Something about Ryo's reaction wasn't right; it didn't feel genuine. He was trying really hard to act casual, but when he had first seen TK, Jeri had noticed his momentary look of panic. Ryo had recognized TK, and not just in the fanboy way that Kazu and Kenta had recognized him. The way Ryo's eyes had widened, the way he'd sucked in that small breath of air – that had been a private reaction, like he knew him personally. She was sure of it. But if that were true – how would that be possible? And more importantly, why was he hiding it?

Jeri forced herself to speak. "Um… TK's lost his memory."

Kazu and Kenta mercifully picked it up from there, filling Ryo in on what had happened since the Vilemon appeared downtown.

"So, Ryo…" she started carefully when they were done. "You've been all over the Digital World, and all TK remembers is being there. Maybe you ran into him there or heard something about how he got there…?"

Ryo's expression didn't change, but she saw the muscles along his jaw tighten as his entire body tensed up. Jeri didn't understand what was going on, but she got the message: _Drop it_.

"This story about Huanglongmon's army," Ryo said, clearly changing the subject, "you tell Yamaki?"

TK nodded. "You heard of this dude?"

Jeri's mouth went dry. She couldn't be sure, not 100% certain, but she felt it deep in her bones… That name… It was all she could do to keep her knees from buckling. She remembered a sleepy male voice, a flickering television set with an image of a golden dragon, and promises of greatness.

"He's the oldest digimon ever created." Ryo glanced around as if afraid he might be listening. "It's said that he sits at the core of the Digital World, but I think it's probably a bit more complicated than that. Either way, he's a sleeping entity that keeps the Digital World afloat, but he's grown to hate humans and their digimon partners."

"So… the Digital World is a being… that's evil?" TK asked.

"Sounds comforting," Patamon said.

"Sort of," Ryo said gravely. "He's more like the core of everything. There are hundreds of worlds out there, whether Hypnos wants you to believe it or not, and they've all become interwoven with him. He keeps the boundaries set. If those worlds start to collide…"

"Boom," Kazu said.

"Darkness," Jeri whispered.

"End of the world," Kenta added.

MarineAngemon chirped with his own input.

"That sounds familiar," TK sounded surprised, like an old memory had partially surface. "But I don't think I've ever heard the part about Huanglongmon."

Ryo shrugged. "He sacrificed himself to keep two worlds at bay. And then it was three—then four—pretty soon, he held the weight of infinite worlds. He used to be a digimon of legend, a hero. That was then, this is now."

"So now he's… crazy," TK said.

"Or something close to it," Ryo continued. "By being at the center of everything, he was exposed to all worlds, both light and dark. Theoretically, it should've kept him in perfect balance, but it didn't. Maybe it was his loneliness or isolation… or maybe something on the outside influenced him…" He trailed off, his gaze turning to look behind him. Monodramon looked up his partner with expressive gold eyes. In this form, Jeri always found it hard to picture the bloodthirsty Cyberdramon that took over when he reached ultimate.

TK followed his gaze, leaning to the side to get a good look at the digimon, and smiled softly. "Hello."

Monodramon raised a claw and waved. "Hi!"

Ryo's lips twitched with amusement. "This is Monodramon, my partner."

"Nice to meet you," Patamon said.

"Nice to meet you," Monodramon mimicked.

Patamon and TK shared a confused look.

"Um, anyway," Ryo continued, "Huanglongmon could be evil and still be a perfectly fine stabilizer for all the worlds if he just stayed asleep. The problem is – he's waking up. Has been for at least two decades. Digimon who've been destroyed are coming back."

"I can confirm that," TK said. "Those Vilemon refused to take a trip back to Primary Village."

Jeri's heart stopped beating. Kenta and Kazu shared a look before glancing toward her, awkward concern written all over their face. She felt hot under their stares. She knew they were just worried about her, but she didn't deserve their concern. Not after what she'd done. She felt like if they stared hard enough, they'd see right through her and figure out the truth. Her secret, her shame…

Ryo hesitated, watching TK's face as if concerned that more of TK's memory might be coming back.

"TK…" Ryo said. "There is no Primary Village."

TK blinked. Confusion crossed his face as if he just realized what he had said and was now trying to connect it to what Ryo had just told him.

"Uh… yeah, dude," Kazu said uncertainly. "When digimon get destroyed, they're just… gone."

"They die," Ryo said softly, "just like we do."

TK wavered unsteadily. "Are… are you _sure?_ "

"Yeah, we're sure," Kenta said. "That's what happened to Jeri's partner Leomon."

Jeri tried not to panic under TK's stare, but it was all starting to be too much. They were way too close to the truth. She could feel the emotion of the memory trying to fight its way to the surface. She flashed a tense smile through the lump in her throat and gave a small shake of her head.

"It was a long time ago," she said, but she stopped herself from sharing anymore details. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep it together if she started talking. She would just tell them everything, and then what good would that do? Nothing. It would just bring her more grief, and she wasn't sure she could survive that again.

"That… that doesn't seem right…"

TK probably wasn't meaning to make her feel worse, but she couldn't help it. She knew what he was referring to, what Primary Village was to him as seen in the anime, but all she felt was the unfairness that came with it simply not existing for them in the Real World. It was just fictional, like the guy they were talking to. She didn't dare say any of this aloud.

Ryo cleared his throat and swiftly steered the subject back to Huanglongmon. "If Huanglongmon is trying to wake up, he's probably not doing it alone. He'll be waking up and reforming every evil he can get his hands on, and their first mission will be to get rid of the only power that can hope to defy him."

"Us," Patamon guessed.

Ryo nodded in agreement.

"Does Hypnos know about this?" TK asked.

"Of course," Ryo said. "But I don't work for Hypnos… secretly or not."

"Ryo's a bit of a lone wolf," Jeri told TK.

"Yeah, he doesn't need no stinkin' Hypnos breathing down his neck!" Kazu said. "He's too cool for that."

Kenta sighed wistfully. "He's the best."

Ryo scratched the back of his neck awkwardly at the compliments. "Cyrberdramon… Monodramon's ultimate… if Hypnos knew what he was like, they'd never just… let him be. Not now. And because I won't play by their rules, they don't trust me. And because they don't trust me, they won't listen to me. I was hoping eventually Hanaharu would _have_ to listen to them…" He gestured to tamers and then looked at TK. "Or you."

"Me?" TK asked. "I just showed up."

"Yeah, but you're different," Ryo said.

"Why?"

"Oh, so many reasons," Kazu muttered.

"TK," Jeri cut in, "we don't know what enemies Huanglongmon might be bringing back, but they're not the worst of it. Even… even _Huanglongmon_ isn't the worst problem out there. What you saw with the Vilemon – how they wouldn't die - that's the real threat."

She glanced at Kazu and Kenta, but they were content to let her do the talking. She was getting dangerously close to her secret now, one that she was keeping from everyone, but she trusted TK. He'd understand; maybe he wouldn't think she was a horrible person… It was a crazy thought. She'd only watched him on television; she didn't know him personally; but if nothing else, he deserved to know what they were facing. She had a feeling he was going to end up stuck in the middle of it.

"I—I think," she said carefully, "what's happening, it could be—"

Before she could finish, a shout came from down the hall.

Terriermon sat on Henry's shoulder as he and Rika walked toward them. They both had somber expressions on their face as they often did nowadays that made Jeri wonder if she weren't the only one holding onto secrets in their group.

She smiled softly, as she did every time she saw Henry and Rika together. She knew it probably wasn't fair to the two of them – especially to Rika – but before Takato disappeared, she'd been scared. Rika was everything she wasn't. She was beautiful and confident and older, both literally and mentally. She seemed to have her whole life figured out. She'd gotten it into her head that there was no way she could ever compete with her. It's not like Takato and Rika ever _looked_ like they were dating – or even interested in each other – but that didn't matter.

In her head, the match was perfect. The Digimon Queen and the Digimon Knight-In-Shining-Armor, together forever. And they were both tamers, and they were both powerful – it just seemed to _fit_. Jeri had thought this so many times that at some point it had become fact. So when Takato had asked Jeri out while blushing from head-to-toe, she'd been almost too stunned to say yes. Almost.

Of course, then Takato had disappeared, and that date never happened. It left her feeling empty. Broken. Sabotaged. Until Rika had swooped in to make sure she didn't sink into her own misery again. She became a good friend – her best friend. She was one of the only people in their group who didn't treat her like some helpless little tagalong. All the boys just wanted to protect her. _Stay back, Jeri. Don't get too close, Jeri. Jeri, it's too dangerous._ But Rika didn't look at her in that way. Rika made Jeri feel like an asset.

And one evening, Jeri had the bright idea to share the story with her about the date that never happened. She knew that Rika probably wouldn't be too interested, not really into those kinds of stories, but she'd listened. And smiled. And even said, " _It was about damn time for Gogglehead to get his act together_."

That was when all concern she had about Rika possibly having feelings for Takato flew out the window. It was also about the same time that she saw how much time Henry and Rika spent together. Maybe she was just lonely or still heartbroken, but she liked to think she saw serious potential there. Of course, neither of the other two tamers seemed to be with the program. They'd been spending time together, just the two of them, for _months_ , and still – nothing.

 _Stop it_ , she chided herself. _Nobody asked you to play matchmaker – especially considering your track record._

Besides, even if she thought Rika would even consider her boy advice for even a second, she still didn't know her secret. If any of them ever found out, she doubted any of them would ever listen or trust her ever again.

"Hey, Ryo," Henry said as he and Rika caught up to them.

"Henry," Ryo said. Then he grinned and tagged on flirtatiously, "Hey, Rika." He seemed to find Rika's reactions to his flirting amusing, probably because Rika never seemed too impressed by any of his antics.

"I got your message," Rika said. She looked at TK. "How'd it go with Hanaharu?"

"It went," TK said. "He tried to take apart my D-3."

"He what?" Henry asked. "Did he break it?"

TK pulled out his D-3 and showed it off. It looked fine. "No, but let's just say I'm glad he didn't have a hammer around."

"I'm pretty sure digivices aren't the only thing he'd like to break open," Kazu said darkly.

Kenta pushed his glasses up his nose. "Yeah, no kidding. Digimon must have nightmares about that guy." MarineAngemon seemed to chirp in agreement. "But good thing is: TK's in. He's got an access badge and everything, so Riley doesn't have to babysit him anymore."

TK rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks."

"Even better," Kazu said, "we can finally show you where you can get a shower in this place. Because, no offense, dude, but… you need one."

TK went red in the face. "That's not my fault," he mumbled.

"But he's not wrong," Patamon sing-songed.

Jeri glanced toward the large bay windows. She just now realized the sun was starting to set toward the horizon. How had the day gone by so fast?

Henry nodded. "Yeah, you guys go ahead and do that. Ryo, Rika, and I will catch up later."

TK looked at Ryo one more time, as though trying to place a memory. "I'd like to talk with you some more. I can't shake the feeling—"

"Sure," Ryo agreed. "I'll be hanging around. You'll find me."

TK made an uncertain noise, but Kenta and Kazu grabbed him each by an arm and started to lead him away. Rika caught her arm before she could go to follow.

"What was that?" she asked quietly.

Her eyes darted from TK to Ryo. She'd caught the weird tension there just as quickly as Jeri had.

Jeri gnawed on her bottom lip for a second. She didn't want to get Ryo in trouble, especially not with Rika – she could be rather intense. But the last thing she wanted was to add another lie on top of every other complicated thing going on in her life at the moment.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But… TK felt like he'd met Ryo before, like he recognized him. And… I think it was mutual…"

The cogwheels in Rika's mind started to whirl rapidly. She let go of Jeri's arm and nodded. "Go on with Kazu and Kenta, Jeri," she said. "Keep them out of trouble. Looks like I need to have a talk with the Digimon _King_."


	8. Chapter Eight

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. Boy, it's early.

 **Author's Note** : Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "pop".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Replies to the previous chapter are often posted about an hour after the newest chapter goes up. To find the topic, navigate to the little drop down menu at the top of the screen for Forum to Anime to Digimon. Find the forum called Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

See what happens when I say I'm not back? Miracles, apparently. God, it's really early. It just hit 5AM here, and I've been doing the editing thing for about... 30 minutes, I wanna say? Either way, my eyes are going kind of cross-eyed, but I wanted to get this up tonight (this morning?) so here it is. I apologize for any errors I might've missed in my half-asleep mess. Either way, I hope you...

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

"So, is it true?" Rika asked. "Do you know him? And I'm not talking about from watching television – do you _know_ him, Ryo?"

They sat in an empty office belonging to some poor sap who had probably gotten fired if the emptiness of the place told them anything. As far as Rika knew, the office could have always been empty, a pointless room among the thousands that were currently occupied. It seemed unlikely, but it wasn't impossible. But then again, a lot of people had been getting fired from this floor lately – the tamers' fault. Anybody who was too pro-tamers and anti-military were being sent home with their possessions in a box. All it took was a simple comment to the wrong person or a post on social media, and they were gone. For the most part, the teenagers didn't really know any of the people being sacked. They were just nameless faces who had supported them in the background. The people who actually worked closely with the tamers, they knew better than to show too much outward support. It was too dangerous.

Rika swallowed back her anger, remembering the close call with Yamaki several months ago, right after Takato disappeared. The Powers That Be had tried to put the blame on him, as if that would make everything alright again. They'd failed – or maybe they just realized that Yamaki was more useful to them working here than just being a convenient patsy. Either way, no Yamaki at Hypnos? She didn't want to think about it. She's not sure Japan would last long without him.

Ryo sighed, his chair balancing precariously on its back two legs while his feet rested on the desk in front of him. Monodramon curled up next to him while Ryo's fingers lazily scratched the top of his head. He gazed out the windows, across the horizon of Shibumi, where the only thing they could see from this high up was the smog settling in for the evening.

"Takeru Takaishi." He said the name as if it didn't quite fit in his mouth. "Rika, I have to be careful what I say here—"

"What do you mean?" Henry interjected. He stood in Ryo's eyeline, back leaning against the window. Terriermon sat on the desk, looking bored out of his mind. "Why can't you just tell us what's going on?"

"Important things are at work here," he said. "Some secrets need to stay secret… at least until the time is right."

"And when will that be?" Renamon asked.

Rika was the only person who wasn't startled by her sudden appearance.

"Hard to say," Ryo said with a touch of annoyed amusement, a hand still on his chest, clearly waiting for his heart to stop trying to pop out of his chest. He glared lightly at Rika, as if he suspected that she had instructed Renamon to appear just like that. She had. "Whenever it feels right."

Rika rolled her eyes. "Well, I have a feeling I'm going to punch you in the face."

"Rika," Ryo started.

"It's getting stronger by the moment."

"What _can_ you tell us?" Henry asked. Always the level-headed one. "He's not like us, is he?"

"No," Ryo said. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more, but I don't think I should interfere. Not yet. Something Shibumi said—"

"You've talked to Shibumi?" Henry asked.

"Briefly," Ryo said, waving it off as if it wasn't important. "All I know is that the best place for TK and Patamon right now is here with us."

"Are they dangerous?" Rika asked.

Ryo managed a dry smile. "Very. To their enemies. But he's not a threat to us. We can trust him."

"Like we trust you," Rika said bitterly.

Ryo ran his finger over his D-Power. Monodramon perked up as if he sensed something, but Terriermon and Renamon didn't react to anything. Rika knew it was a false alarm. In this form, Monodramon seemed so in tune with his partner's emotions, he'd react to a threat at the slightest sign of Ryo's distress. Rika had gotten used to it by now, but she still couldn't help but see the irony: in one of his weakest forms, all Monodramon wanted to do was protect Ryo from every possible threat, but in the form where he could be any help, Cyberdramon was too far gone to be any help to anybody – unless you wanted something destroyed, of course.

"Look, I know this is hard," Ryo said. "I know how much you hate not knowing something—"

"It might have something to do with the fact that it's because it's usually dangerous for us," Henry pointed out.

" _Momentai_ , Henry! I'm sure Ryo would tell us if it was dangerous," Terriermon said. Then he paused. "…Right?"

"Yes," Ryo said with no hesitation. "And yes, it's dangerous. You need to be on your guard. In fact, I'd guess you probably need to head to the Digital World… and soon."

"You'll be coming with us?" Rika asked.

Rika caught his hesitation instantly, and she could feel her suspicion and frustration growing. This was probably the main thing she hated about Ryo Akiyama, Digimon King. Ryo cared about the tamers, Rika never doubted that, but he never really integrated himself in the group. He always made sure to keep them at arm's length, going on his own missions and getting into his own fights. It didn't matter that they were all on the same side, working toward the same goal; Ryo Akiyama had to do it on his own and in his own way. Rika knew it wasn't about being "too cool" or "too egotistical" to hang around with them, but she was tired of trying to be patient and just waiting for him to come around. That was always Takato's area of expertise.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Rika's blood boiled with frustration, as if little rivers of lava were flowing through her veins, but she bit back the bitterness to focus on the problem at hand. "Why do we need to go to the Digital World? Is it about the digimon not staying destroyed? Have you figured out who's behind it?"

"I'm getting close," Ryo said. "It's getting bad in the Digital World. The Digimon Sovereigns are trying to keep peace, but they're losing control. And from what Jeri and TK told me, things are starting to spill out over into the Real World too."

"Yeah, you can say that again," Terriermon quipped.

"Things are starting to spill out over into the Real World too," Monodramon echoed.

They ignored him.

"Okay, say we go to the Digital World like you think we should," Henry said. "What will we be looking for?"

"The cause of all of this – the digimon not staying destroyed," Ryo said.

"You've located the source?" Renamon asked.

"Sort of," Ryo said.

"A little less vagueness would be nice!" Terriermon said. Rika saw Henry's lips twitch in amusement, but neither made a move to contradict Terriermon's statement. A straight answer would be nice for once.

"When you delete something on your computer, it gets moved to your recycling bin, and it sits there, waiting to be erased fully but not really on your computer anymore," Ryo said. Rika blinked, not sure where this was going, but she didn't interrupt him, figuring she might as well let him talk it out. "Think of that in terms of digimon. When digimon are deleted, their data is still out there, right? That's how other digimon can absorb the data; that's where all of the loose data packets come from…"

"Okay…" Rika said slowly. If Ryo was trying to hint at something here, she wasn't getting it.

"The recycling bin on your computer will empty itself as you delete more things. It's automatic to make sure your hard drive doesn't end up cluttered with erased data that you had already deleted anyway. It's a cleanup function." Ryo looked between Rika and Henry. "The Digital World does the same thing. When too much loose data is left floating around, it will purge itself of the oldest data, sending it… somewhere."

"Somewhere?" Henry repeated.

"Calumon – he is the living form of a nonliving program that existed within the Digital World, the Catalyst that allowed digivolution," Ryo said suddenly, seemingly changing the subject on them.

"What does Calumon have to do with this?" Rika asked sharply.

Ryo raised both of his hands to stop her before she could work herself into a frenzy. "Probably nothing! But the point is – the Sovereigns, they've taken a basic functioning program within the Digital World before and turned it into something living to protect it. My sources tell me that something similar has happened to this… Recycling Bin program, for lack of a better name. Whatever program was in place to purge the Digital World of its loose data, it's _gone_. The data is just sitting there. Data streams, data packets, literally zeroes and ones that make up destroyed digimon, like lost souls – the Digital World is full of them now, even more than they were the last time you guys were there. And it's only going to get worse. I think – no, I _know_ – that somehow Huanglongmon has made the program into a physical entity that he could trap."

"A physical entity… just like Calumon," Henry said, catching on.

"Before this program went missing, Huanglongmon was having to reach outside of the Digital World to wherever the excess data was being purged to reform old enemies," Ryo explained. "But now, with this program in his grasp as his captive, the data just stays here. There's no wait period, no hesitation, the digimon can just reform on their own without his help within seconds."

"Like those Vilemon," Terriermon said. "You mean every enemy from now on is going to do that? Henry, I think I'm ready to retire."

"So that's why you want us to go to the Digital World," Henry said, ignoring his partner. "To rescue this… program or whatever it is?"

"It won't stop the digimon from being able to come back," Ryo admitted, "but it'll certainly slow them down. At least, if I understand it correctly."

Rika narrowed her eyes at him. "Who exactly is this source of yours?"

Ryo and Monodramon shared a look before Ryo sighed. "That's not important."

Rika wanted to argue, but she had a feeling that now was not the time. It really did feel like they were fighting the clock here. The date that TK had brought them speaking of their impending doom was feeling closer by the second. She settled for an annoyed glare instead.

Henry interrupted the silent glaring. "If you're not coming with us, how will we know where to go?"

"You know there are six layers to the Digital World," Ryo said. "The first layer is the data layer, created by humans, the layer that Hypnos can track to see who is coming through. Then there's the sky layer that determines whether it's night or day. Third is the first physical layer, dead wasteland, what we see when we play the video games. Underneath that is all of the universes, the different climates and habitats created out of necessity for the digimon to have somewhere to call home. And then it's the Sovereigns domain, where Zhuqiaomon and Azulongmon live. And last…"

Rika wasn't sure where Ryo was going with this at first. She and Henry knew all of this, of course. Out of all of the tamers – including Takato – they probably knew this the best outside of Ryo, but she let him talk, figuring there was a point. At least, she had hoped so, as the growing tension started to work its way up her spine. And then he finally got to it and she felt her throat threaten to close. She waited for Ryo to reassure them that they wouldn't be going there, but he made no move to; he just let them catch up to what he was hinting at. She glanced toward Henry and saw the horror on his face, and she knew he'd come to the same conclusion.

"D-Reaper," he whispered.

"We can't," Rika said immediately. She was not usually one to backdown from a fight, but she knew what this would entail. If they had to fight the D-Reaper again, she knew that there was only one way they defeated it before, and it took all of Henry and Terriermon's strength plus a little backup. And considering their condition now – a condition she shared – she knew they would never survive. "We can't go down there, wake that thing back up—"

"Rika, would I be sending you guys down there if I thought you might be waking it up?" Ryo asked.

Terriermon let out a nervous laugh. "That means it's gonna stay nice and dormant, right?"

"Or it means it's already been awoken," Renamon said.

Ryo's expression remained unreadable, but Rika figured his silence was answer enough.

"Does anybody else know about this?" Henry asked, his voice sharp.

Ryo shook his head. "I wanted to tell you two first. Even Shibumi doesn't know, though I'm sure it won't take Hypnos long to catch on."

"But by the time they do, it'll be too late," Henry said. "The Chaos will be making its way back into the Real World again. It learns; it adapts. It'll find a way."

Rika felt paralyzed. She was hit with a sudden memory, one she thought she had locked away for good. _When the Chaos awakens for the second time, you'll wish I was at your side to fight it_.

Four years ago, she'd assumed it was an empty threat. She hadn't known the Chaos then, and when they had defeated the D-Reaper and sent it back to the Digital World, she had assumed that was the last of it. But was this what that voice had been talking about? Had that threat actually been a promise, a warning? Did that mean any journey they made to the Sixth Layer was doomed to end in failure, that there was no way they were going to survive?

"We can't fight that again," Rika whispered.

Had anyone other than just Henry, Ryo, and their digimon been present, she would've been embarrassed by how vulnerable she felt.

"There's something else down there to, with the Chaos," Ryo said. "You have to be ready for it. But I know you'll be fine, and if I can, I'll join you – just later. I have to check something else out first, and I'm pretty sure it'll take me too long to ask you to wait for me. It would be too dangerous to wait at this pace."

"What else do you have to check out?" Renamon asked.

Ryo shook his head, a clear sign he had no intention on answering her question. "Look, I know it sounds hopeless to go up against this thing without Takato this time, but don't forget about our new friend. TK Takaishi – he's a bit of a wild card. He's a good person to have at your side."

"You say that like we'll be able to steal him away to the Digital World," Rika said. "I don't think Hanaharu is going to let him go that easily, even without knowing the truth about him."

"He did try to take apart his D-3," Henry said. "And you can't tell me that didn't have something to do with him having an angel digimon."

"You're just going to have to find a way to make sure you can take him with you," Ryo said. "He's a part of this. You can feel that, can't you?"

Rika didn't agree aloud, but she had to admit that he was right. From the second that she had laid her eyes on TK, she had sensed this power emitting from the kid. At first, it had reminded her of Takato, this quiet energy bubbling under the surface, but after spending more time with him, she realized it hummed at a different frequency. Either way, the kid was special, and special usually meant important.

"Did he really just come out of the TV?" she asked. Four years ago, she would've thought such a question to be ridiculous, but now? She knew anything was possible. "Or is it more than that?"

Ryo raised an eyebrow at her as if to say, _Do you really expect me to answer that?_ He pulled his D-Power off his belt and glanced at the time before setting it back in its place.

"Look, it's getting late, and I haven't eaten," Ryo said. "So how about we continue this conversation with the others over dinner?"


End file.
